


The Dreamt-of Call

by TiRaven (Estirose)



Category: Power Rangers RPM
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-02-22
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2017-10-15 20:53:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 28,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/164842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/TiRaven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a version of R.P.M. where the morphers choose their users, the Rangers need to find their last two teammates. Unfortunately, their only likely candidates are a minor criminal and an amnesiac with Venjix hardware in him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Call Can't Read Rap Sheets

**Author's Note:**

> I told my Ziggy muse that, following the "Harder to be Brave" storyline, we were not going to write 15,000 words of storyline again, keep it short. The one-shot that followed kind of demanded a followup, so I figured I'd just write this very, very slowly, which means it might be a WIP for a while. (I have a few other major WIPs that I'd like to get done first, including one I've been working on for a while with a co-author.)
> 
> The original one-shot was titled "The Call Can't Read Rap Sheets", but I decided to change the title because the story was drawing away from being a Ziggy-focus.
> 
> If you feel inspired by this fic, and wish to write in this universe, feel free to do so! I know how muses work, sometimes. :)

Flynn sagged down on the couch. “That was a long day,” he said, rubbing the bruise caused by the latest AttackBot. “The damn things are getting smarter.”

Summer limped by him, having been hit in the leg during their battle. “I know,” she said sympathetically. Behind her, Scott was taking out his frustration on the fridge.

“We must step up our methods to find Series Operators Black and Green,” Dr. K said, his voice coming from the wall nearby. “Apparently the ones we have are inadequate.”

Joining them, Scott said, “You mean, they rely on identifying people who pass by the place and hoping they try to come inside, without letting an AttackBot infiltrate the place.”

“Is there any way to turn up the morphers’ call?” Flynn asked. “I mean, see how much Scott here tried to ignore things. Maybe they need a little more volume.” That was the problem with their morphers – somehow, they’d matched themselves with Operators, a side effect of whatever Dr. K had done to make them. At least they’d had the decency to ‘call out’ to the Operators in question, though it had been pure luck that Flynn had gotten curious and responded to his own call, after days of dreams of suits and the overwhelming blue. Summer, too, the same way. Scott had confessed to the same thing later, but he’d only come there to deliver something to Dr. K, and it wasn’t until he’d gotten there that they’d realized what he was.

Somewhere out there, there were two people who were getting dreams of black and green and steadfastly ignoring them.

“Unfortunately,” Dr. K said, “There is not. And those I have identified as frequent passers-by are either all steadily employed nearby, live nearby, or are unlikely for other reasons to be either Operator.” He paused, and an image flashed up on the screen. “This, for example, is Ziggy Grover; he is a known criminal that was last known to be in the employ of the Scorpion Cartel. I sincerely doubt that a minor gangster would be chosen as an Operator.”

“I see him a lot outside,” Summer said thoughtfully. “Dr. K, can you be sure he’s not?”

“Without testing the morphers on him, I cannot. But I sincerely doubt that he is Operator material. His passings may just be coincidence, or he may place some emotional value on this structure. Or he might keep some stash in the brickwork that we are unaware of; he seems to caress the bricks often, as he is doing now.”

“You mean, he’s outside right now?” Summer asked, heading towards the door.

“I sincerely hope, Ranger Yellow, that that was a rhetorical question….”

But he was gone by the time Summer went outside. “Ziggy Grover!” she yelled, hoping against hope that he’d stop and come to her. He’d looked in the security footage like she had before Flynn had invited her in – looking lost, trying to figure out what called her. “Come back here!”

There was no answer.

Summer sighed and returned to the Garage. “What were you thinking?” Flynn asked, though it was more curiosity than anything else.

“He had the look,” Summer told him. She turned to face Scott. “The same look we all had. We don’t know the selection criteria for the morphers, but I’m sure that they can’t read rap sheets.”

Scott facepalmed. “All right. I think this is a stupid idea, but if you’re right, you’re right. But how do we find him?”

“If he really is our Operator Series Green or Black, don’t you think he’d come back?” Flynn suggested. “He’s been coming here for weeks; he’ll come back again. Don’t think he has a choice. We never did.”

“No,” Summer echoed. “We never did.”

She stared at Ziggy Grover’s image and knew that Flynn was right. He’d come back. Eventually.

A few blocks away, Ziggy Grover peeked nervously over his shoulder. The woman’s voice had sounded familiar, but he couldn’t really place it. But her tone, well, he’d heard a lot of that. Even though Fresno Bob had let him go – after telling him he was too soft to be a mobster after the man had found Ziggy and the truck outside of the orphanage – some of the other groups still had grudges. He hated to imagine what they’d done if he’d managed to ‘take off’ with the full five million in medical supplies. As it was, he was still too bruised up from the last gang encounter to find out what he’d done to whoever was yelling at him.

As it was, he was sure the orphanage was grateful for his services, and he was just as grateful for a roof over his head, some food, and the occasional tiny bit of money ‘unofficially’ given to him. He liked trying to help the orphans, and he liked where he was.

Maybe he’d better avoid the place for a few weeks. Watch his steps. He wasn’t sure why he kept coming back, but he was going to stop. Now.

Rubbing a bruise, he closed his eyes, mentally mapping a path back home. Maybe he’d take a nap when he got there; he was tireder than he thought. A field of dark green, the same field that haunted his dreams, crossed the back of his eyelids.

He shook his head, and banished the color. Straightened up. And walked away.


	2. The Glowing Uniform

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A stranger with Venjix technology shows up, while the Rangers are still looking for Ziggy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This, of course, parallels the first three episodes of RPM, with some changes due to the universe's setup. I don't know how close it will hold to the rest of the series; we'll have to see.

"So, what do you think?" Summer asked as they looked at the video. The man who had run through the barricade was tall and well-built; the routine scan had revealed Venjix hardware throughout his body. The standard interrogation had revealed that he'd been driven to seek out Corinth.

And the only reason that he'd been searching was of one thing. Well, two, both colors: black and gold. He'd talked about the fields that invaded his dreams, the ones so familiar to the current Rangers.

"Seriously," Flynn said, looking at the footage. "For all we know, this could be a Venjix trick."

Summer had her doubts. She'd seen what he'd done to save her, and she'd seen the savage way he'd gone after the Grinders. But it wasn't like they could apply the standard 'test' that they'd been using, which was to figure out which of the people who passed by the Garage was there because of dreams they could only half-recall and colors that kept plaguing their thoughts.

That's how they'd found their other candidate, Ziggy Grover, who had somehow vanished off into thin air and was currently resisting being found.

"Or… he could be one of our missing Operators," she reminded him.

"There's nothing exceptional about this guy," Scott pointed out. "Yes, he's well-built, and yet, he saved you, but face it, it's not enough proof to convince my father to let him go long enough to find out if he's one of us."

"So, let's bring him in and see how he reacts to the suit," Summer said. "And how the suit reacts to him." There was always the possibility that a candidate could react the correct way, accidentally or not, but the morpher and suit always reacted back only to those who were called.

"How?" Scott asked. "There's no way he's going to be let loose on the streets, Summer."

"Yeah," she said, with the beginning of a smile, "But we can call anyone we want for testing. I don't think it matters if they're in prison."

"I have to say I'm not keen on this myself," Flynn said. "But it probably doesn't hurt. At least we might have one Ranger while we're looking for our other one."

"And if he was chosen," Summer said, "He's on our side. So we don't have to worry about that."

She hoped she was doing the right thing. She hoped, at the very least, that she'd guessed right from his reaction. If not, if he was a Venjix AttackBot, then there would be problems.

"Can we bring the guy here, sedated?" Flynn asked Dr. K's screen. "That way, we don't put ourselves at risk, but we can still see if either of the morphers react."

"I am unable to determine whether the morphers would react to an unconscious Operator," Dr. K replied. "But… if Ranger Yellow is correct, then this is one of our missing Operators; if not, it would be simple enough to return him to military authority."

So, Scott went to have a conversation with his father. Summer winced as she heard the elder Truman's tones and his opinion of what he thought of the plan. But she'd been correct; they had every right to test this guy.

Whoever he was. He'd given his name as 'Dillon', but if he had a surname, he wasn't sure of what it was. He seemed to have complete amnesia, but that hadn't stopped him from coming to Corinth.

The conversation between Scott and his father eventually died down, and Dr. K started working with Scott's father to temporarily transfer control. Apparently, there was going to be a military guard on Dillon at all times, and he would come in restrained - which saved them from having to restrain him themselves, she had to admit.

"They'll get him over here in about two hours," Scott said. His whole body language said that he didn't like the idea, but all of them had to admit they were desperate. "I hope you're right, Summer."

"Well, if she is, that'll make him far easier to find than Ziggy Grover," Flynn said. "We're running out of places to find the guy."

"At least we know he's not with any of the cartels," she offered, though the way he'd been kicked out left some question in her mind - and everyone else's - on how competent Ziggy Grover would be as a Ranger. If he'd been considered too incompetent to work for the Scorpion Cartel, how useful could he be to them?

"Aye." Flynn crossed over to the breakfast bar, no doubt to work on one of his famous smoothies. "I still can't believe he offered to find the man for us. Of course, he doesn't know about the fact that Ziggy Grover should come back to this place."

"Assuming he is our missing Operator," Scott said, leaning on the same bar. "And assuming he comes back."

"Can't resist it," Flynn said, concentrating on his drink-making. "You tried that; didn't work out too well, did it?"

"Which says he isn't an Operator," Scott said. "If he was, wouldn't he have come back?"

"Depends on how much in denial he was," Flynn pointed out.

"I suspect that if he is an Operator," Dr. K said, coming into the conversation, "He will be returning to us shortly; I've detected an increase in intensity from both morphers, similar to the Red morpher's actions shortly before Ranger Operator Series Red joined us."

"That's one headache I really don't think he's going to ignore," Scott added. "If he is an Operator. If either of them is."

Summer nodded, remembering that Scott had complained of chronic headaches before ending up as Ranger Red, and those headaches going away after he'd bonded. She and Flynn apparently had responded promptly enough that they hadn't had issues.

Dillon, or whatever his name was, had seemed like he hadn't had headaches, but he had been very sarcastic and not cooperative with his interrogators. Maybe it was a side-effect of the morpher.

Or maybe he was naturally sarcastic and uncooperative. She didn't know.

She ended up playing a few rounds of pool with Scott. Why he insisted on challenging her, she'd never know, because she was definitely better. Her parents had their issues, but there was something to be said for her father teaching her pool. It certainly came in handy.

It certainly passed the time until Hicks came in with an unconscious, restrained Dillon.

They took him into the room with the suits, and Black started pulsing against the dimmed light. "Is it supposed to do that?" Hicks asked.

"It's a good sign, at least," Summer said, smiling for him. Either Hicks or one of the other two soldiers was Ranger Black, or their prisoner was.

"Maybe you should step back a bit, make sure you don't contaminate the good doctor's results," Flynn suggested. Summer remembered after a moment that Hicks had been tested and found incompatible.

"We have to be watching him. Orders." Hicks was firm.

"Rangers, I believe that neither Hicks nor his subordinates are responsible for the current visual phenomena on the Ranger Black suit."

"Thank you," Hicks said. "I promise, I won't interfere, but we do have to be here."

"Would you perhaps be able to cancel the sedation on the prisoner?" Dr. K asked. "I need him to be awake in order to do certain kinds of testing."

"No, sir." Hicks spoke with authority, but also with respect. "But the doctors said that he should wake up in a short while, because we suspected you might need him conscious. Brain waves and that sort of thing."

"That is correct, Corporal Hicks. Please remain while we wait for your prisoner to regain consciousness."

Hicks remained with the prisoner. So did she, Scott, and Flynn. She was pretty sure that Dillon was their missing Black, but given what was at stake, she didn't blame Dr. K for being cautious. They'd know when the morpher reacted, and apparently it wasn't going to react while Dillon was unconscious. Had it been one of the three troopers, it would have materialized, and then they would have had a fun game of "who gets the morpher".

After a while, Dillon groaned, a sign of returning consciousness. "What?" he asked, and sounded groggy. Summer didn't blame him.

Nor did she really blame him for rattling his restraints or not looking overly happy. Especially if he had a headache from the morpher's call.

"Okay, what's going on this time?" Dillon asked impatiently.

"You are being scanned in order to gauge your desirability to participate in our program." Dr. K was… well, more detached than usual.

"Let me guess," Dillon said, "I pass all of your tests, you let me be a guinea pig instead of a prisoner."

"Something like that, yes," Summer said, crossing to Dillon. "More along the lines of you can spend a lot of time thrashing Grinders." She knew it would appeal to Dillon; he'd seemed awfully pissed at the things when they'd first met. "You'd be part of a team that defends this city from Venjix's forces."

"It's either that or be a prisoner over something I didn't choose, right?" Dillon asked. He didn't seem any happier by the prospect. "I'm not a team member. All I want is to get the black out of my head and be on my way. Maybe get some fuel and food while I'm at it."

"That's an interesting way of phrasing it," Flynn said. "How is the black in your head?"

There was a clunking noise somewhere behind her. She didn't have to guess it was the morpher.

"It's in my head," Dillon said impatiently. "How else do I describe it? It's in my head."

That's how Scott had described it, how she'd described it. Maybe a little bit differently. The color yellow hadn't left her alone until Flynn had invited her in and her morpher had landed neatly on the ground in front of the case.

"Well, we have a way of getting the black out of your head," Flynn said, coming up beside her, "But I'm afraid you're not going to like it too much."

"I already don't like it too much," Dillon said. "Look, let me go, let me out the gates, I won't be returning. I'm not joining a team."

"That's too bad," Scott said. He was holding the Ranger Black morpher. "Because you know what? I bet you have headaches on top of black being stuck in your brain. And this is the only way you're going to fix it."

"I don't take well to blackmail," Dillon told him, though his eyes were on the morpher. She was sure that if he saw his uniform, which had stopped glowing, he'd be unable to keep his eyes off of it.

They'd found their Ranger Black; all they had to do was convince him to take up the morpher, defend the city. But as she gazed at Dillon, she had to wonder how.

She hoped that Ziggy Grover would be easier to convince once they found him.


	3. Kids in the Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the Rangers persuade Dillon to stay, Ziggy takes some of the orphans out for a visit to the park.

Ziggy winced as he helped one of the kids out at the orphanage. He'd taken a painkiller, but the headache didn't seem to be going away. He always had a flash of green with it, and wished he could go to the doctor and see what was going on.

But he couldn't really afford a doctor, and with the increased cartel activity, he couldn't really risk going out other than to steal some things. Ms. Robinson frowned at this, but the orphanage really needed his help and what he brought back, so she turned a blind eye in the end.

He hadn't even been able to go on his old walking routes, even though he really missed them. Missed them to the point of finding himself starting to go that way when he went out. But he'd been able to stop himself in time, even if he'd had to stop himself two or three times when his feet just couldn't point themselves in the right direction.

"Ziggy," Ms. Robinson said, "Could you take Michael, Sandy, Arcie, Bertha, and Lydia out on a walk? It will do them some good."

Exercise always was good for the kids. Even when they didn't feel like it.

"Sure, where?" he asked. Usually it was the park; that was on the route his feet liked to take, so it was okay.

"The park; if they want to play a while, let them, and then take them back."

"Sure." He collected the kids, ushering them to the park. He wasn't sure if she just wanted them out of the way, or actually wanted them to get some exercise, so he encouraged them to skip and run on the way there.

"Mr. Ziggy," Arcie said when they'd reached the park, "I wanna be a Power Ranger when I grow up!"

Ziggy grinned. "Well, they could use a few more people," he said. The Rangers were great, but even he could see they were getting overwhelmed.

Sometimes they tested people - he knew of several in the cartel who had tried to get into those tests, but they never had - but he'd never be called. Thankfully. He couldn't imagine being a Ranger and being able to save the city. He couldn't fight, for one thing.

"Do you want to be a Power Ranger, Mr. Ziggy?" Arcie asked, peering at him.

He laughed, though he decided to let the boy down gently. "Well, I have to admit sometimes I dream of being Ziggy Grover, Green Ranger." Mostly in his dreams at night, but he did. "And I'd be in light green spandex, and my outfit would be shark-themed, with a fin on the helmet." Even he could dream, even though he knew in reality that he'd be awful as one. "But I'm too busy helping Ms. Robinson, and besides, they'd probably want someone big and strong."

Arcie was frowning, and so he quickly added, "But I'm sure you'll grow up into someone the Rangers would want."

He sent Arcie off running, and just sat down on the grass, watching the kids play. The medication that they were able to get, both from his own effort, and Ms. Robinson's, was helping. The kids were getting better.

"Mr. Ziggy!" Lydia, a hispanic girl with curly hair, pointed in the direction of the path. "The Power Rangers!"

ZIggy looked up. Yes, there they were, the Rangers, with a guy he didn't recognize. Tall, broadly built, wearing a leather jacket over a black shirt. The Yellow Ranger, Summer, was talking to him, and he was frowning.

Was the city going to get a new Ranger? He desperately hoped so. They needed at least one more.

"Arcie, Michael, Sandy, Bertha," he said, calling to his charges, "Stay here." The Rangers needed their privacy. He had to admit, he wanted to go up to them too, but they were apparently there to take a walk, not to indulge fans. And he was going to set a good example for the kids if it killed him.

And as it started to rain, he gathered the kids back and headed them in the direction of home.

Summer had thought she'd recognized someone out of the corner of her eye, but she kept her focus on Dillon. They'd convinced the military to let them have custody of him; all they had to do was convince him that he wanted to stay.

He was clearly their Ranger Operator Series Black, and he definitely had passed all of Dr. K's tests, but when it came to joining the team, he'd steadfastly refused. He didn't want to go back to the military jail where they'd been holding him, but he'd repeated his desire to just buy some fuel and leave Corinth.

Probably it was because of military procedures, the suspicion that someone might be a Venjix agent trying to slip into the city as a refugee. Well, Dillon wasn't that person, the morpher had chosen him, and that was the only reason he was walking about somewhat free. But she could tell that he didn't like it.

He didn't like being bound, maybe as a result of being held. He might not understand it, but she did. He wanted to be free, and to be asked to be a Ranger, to stay in one place, to be under Scott's command and be bound to defend this city… well, she could understand why he wanted to leave.

Unfortunately, he had to stay. He had no choice in the matter. The morpher would continue to call him, he'd be drawn back, drawn to defend just as she and the others had. And this time, the military wouldn't trust him, no matter how many assurances the Rangers gave them.

Getting this loner riddled with Venjix hardware to stay wasn't going to be physically hard, but it was a challenge she and the others were going to have to rise up to. Whatever the morpher had seen in Dillon was what they had to work with, to get him to stay.

Even if he wasn't interested in Corinth or defending it. The only thing that might get him to stay is the promise that the headaches wouldn't bother him any more, that the black and gold would get out of his head. But she wanted him to care as well, at least a little bit.

Dillon stopped as the rain started, and she gave him a smile. He probably wasn't used to rain, being amnesiac and having been stuck in the Wastes for however long. He was blinking at it, as if unsure of what to do.

Apparently, he didn't know how to get out of the rain.

She had paid attention to the forecast, knowing rain was on the schedule. That's why she'd planned the outing, taking the others with her because between the three of them, the military trusted them enough with Dillon. If he saw the rain, the people, maybe he'd see what was worth saving. Why he was there. He'd had to have loved, sometime, and gotten hurt.

But as she followed his gaze, she could see what he was looking at. A family, gathered under an umbrella they'd brought, sitting and laughing. She didn't know what it was about them that had caught his attention, but he was watching them, watching as a sister and brother tussled over a sandwich, even as the rain kept falling down.

"What are you thinking?" she asked, coming over to him, opening her own umbrella.

"I'll join you," he said simply.

She looked at the family again, quietly thankful again.

"Great!" Flynn said. His smile wasn't entirely forced; he knew as well as she did that Dillon wouldn't have felt the call if he'd been on Venjix's side; it was just taking him a bit longer to trust. "Now all we have to do is find Ziggy Grover."

"Who's he?" Dillon asked, raising his eyebrows.

"We think he's our Series Green," Summer told him. "Except we can't find him."

"We have our doubts he is," Scott said. "Summer think he is… but he hasn't shown the signs for the last two weeks. Plus, he's a minor criminal."

Dillon frowned at that. Summer hoped that Scott wouldn't go on; he was, of the three, most opposed. She'd brought Flynn over by reviewing the video. He'd agreed that Ziggy'd had the same look they'd all had.

"A minor criminal with a major headache, you mean," Flynn said. "I have no doubt he's one of us. You've seen his look, man. Once we find him, I'm sure he'll be like the rest of us."

"If we find him. If he comes back," Scott said, but she knew the look in his eyes. He wanted to believe. He wanted, as they all did, their fifth operator. Even if Ziggy Grover needed training, he was still the one to complete them.

She just hoped they didn't get to retrieve him out of jail.


	4. Only the Trees Dare Stop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rangers might have found their final member in an unexpected place.

"Mr. Ranger?" A small hand was tugging on Scott's pants as he and the others returned to their cars after finishing off an Attackbot. Scott looked down to see a little Hispanic girl looking up at him. "Mr. Ziggy's hurt, can you help him?"

Scott crouched down. "I'll see what we can do." He smiled at the girl. "But we might have to call an ambulance if he's too bad."

Flynn crouched down beside him. "What's your name, lass?" he asked, smiling at her as well.

"Lydia!" she announced.

"Well, Lydia," he said, "Show us where Mr. Ziggy is."

"You think he might be Ziggy Grover?" Scott asked quietly. He saw Summer looking at the two of them, and Dillon getting in his car.

"Might be. Needs some help anyway, sounds like." Flynn raised his voice. "We're going to help Mr. Ziggy, we'll be right back," he called to Summer and Dillon. Dillon looked confused, Summer just nodded, and then Lydia was tugging at Scott's hand.

The little girl led them to where a tree had fallen, circling it until Scott could see a human figure below an upper branch. "There's Mr. Ziggy," she said, pointing him out.

Flynn was picking his way through the tree. "Looks like he's the not the only one there - looks like he was protecting someone else."

If this was Ziggy Grover, their best candidate for Ranger Green, then maybe he wasn't as bad as he seemed.

"Arcie hurt his ankle and Mr. Ziggy saw the tree coming down and grabbed him to save him," Lydia told him. He could see Flynn kneeling down.

"Looks like it's our Mr. Grover, still breathing," Flynn said. "And someone below him - hello, lad, what's your name? How are you feeling?"

There was a noise, and Flynn said, "Let's try to get you out of here." He listened to the boy, and added, "I think we'd better wait for the doctors to look at Mr. Ziggy. I don't wanna move him until they make sure he hasn't broken something." More from the boy, and Flynn added, "Probably should have them look at you too. But let's move you a bit out from under Mr. Ziggy, okay?"

Scott watched as Flynn eased the boy out from under their Ranger-to-be. Something occurred to him, and he turned to Lydia. The girl looked at him with big, wide eyes. "Lydia," he said, "Was Mr. Ziggy feeling okay before this?"

The little girl shook her head. "He doesn't say anything to us, but he's told Ms. Seya and Ms. Robinson that he's got headaches. Yesterday's was so bad that he couldn't be in the light. But today he felt a bit better and took us out."

Migraine, it sounded like, and Scott had to wonder if Ziggy Grover's was morpher-induced, the result of the more intense call. There was no way to tell.

"Mr. Ranger, do you know Mr. Ziggy?" Lydia asked, with the wild-eyed innocence of someone who thought that all the important people in their lives should know one another.

"No," he said, "But we've been looking for him."

"Why? Is he gonna be a Ranger? He says he wouldn't be a good one, 'cause he can't fight, but he's nice. And he'd be a shark, I heard him telling Arcie."

Somewhere in Lydia's words, there were things that caught his attention. One, Ziggy Grover couldn't fight. Two, he'd been dreaming of his uniform.

Summer had been right. Flynn had been right.

And lying under a tree branch was their Ranger Operator Series Green, who desperately needed to bond with his morpher and start his training.

"I don't know," he said, "We'd have to make sure." He took his morpher out of his pocket. "Dr. K?"

"Report, Ranger Red," the voice said crisply. "Ranger Yellow tells me that you may have located Ziggy Grover."

"He's going to need an ambulance," Scott said, looking at the tree. "And he definitely needs testing."

"If you are certain, Ranger Red," Dr. K said, "Then I will do so after he is released from medical care." He could see Flynn calling for medical assistance. Dr. K didn't sound trilled, but he never had.

"And he's going to need extensive training, if he does pass," Scott said. He knew that the man would pass, poor combatant though he was. He wasn't keen on it, but it was hardly Ziggy Grover's fault. He hadn't chosen to be a Ranger. It sounded like he would have been perfectly happy to continue his new job in childcare.

"Noted. I've discerned from the certainty of your voice that you think the testing will be successful. Very well. I shall plan an extensive and intensive training program for him."

"And Flynn and I will wait here for the ambulance," Scott said.

"Noted. I will wait for your return to conduct your full debriefing. Dr. K out."

Ziggy could hear voices above him as his head pounded. He didn't dare open his eyes, as it was too painful, a return of the migrane from yesterday.

He felt a comforting hand on his arm. "Ziggy? Don't move, man. A tree hit you and we don't know how bad you're injured."

The accent was Scottish. A familiar voice. He remembered that he'd fallen while trying to get Arcie out of the way. "Arcie?"

"Safe," the voice assured him. "Got him from beneath you, we'll have the paramedics look at him, too."

He couldn't afford a hospital. Struggling to get up, he felt the tree branch above him. He'd have to get up before the medics arrived. They could take care of Arcie, but not him. "Lay down, man! You're injured." The hand was trying to push him down.

"'s all right," he managed. If he could get up... well, maybe he could sit up and he had asprin in his pockets. He fished in them blindly. Once the pain died down, he could see again. Then he could go back.

"Odin's beard," the voice swore. "You're in pain and we canna have you wandering about in this condition."

"It's okay, Mr. Ziggy," he heard Arcie said. "Mr. Ranger's here to help us."

Mister Ranger? Then Ziggy placed the voice. The Blue Ranger. The hand on his back was the Ranger's. He sagged down.

"Don't worry," the voice reassured him, the comforting burr continuing. "You were verry brave, but I don't think Arcie's hurt too badly and the rest of your charges seem to be safe. But they need you to rest, okay, and be a good example to them."

Another person approached, or at least he thought so, the rustling of leaves and the sound of shoes hitting asphalt at least seeming to say so. "Don't tell me he tried to get up."

"Aye, Scott, but I've got him lying down again." Ziggy wondered what he'd done to rate two Rangers.

"Lydia - the little girl - said that he's been getting headaches and migraines. And dreams. Maybe you and Summer were right."

Never mind what he'd done to rate two Rangers, he wondered what they were talking about.

"Course we were, Scott. And I'm sure Dr. K will be testing him as soon as he's out of hospital."

Okay, maybe he understood that bit. Apparently his act of courage had been enough to get him tested as a Ranger. "Can't fight," he said, to stop that before it started. "Don't test me."

"We've been looking for you for weeks," the Blue Ranger - Flynn - told him. "I guess it took a tree to get you to stop running long enough."

Weeks? There had been an order to test him for weeks? Him, Ziggy Grover, Scorpion Cartel failure?

"Why?" he croaked. The pain made it hard for him to keep a coherent thought.

"We'll tell you later," Flynn said. "You just rest. We'll keep with you until the paramedics arrive."

"Think I'll just try nap now," he said, hoping that the pain would knock him out.

And mercifully, it did.


	5. Hospital Stairs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flynn goes to visit Ziggy in the hospital, only to discover that Ziggy is missing.

Dillon had told Dr. K to shove it more than once. He might have chosen to claim the morpher, but he was getting sick and tired of reporting for training and tests, and sometimes he wished he'd stayed far away from Corinth.

But he had to grudgingly admit the evidence presented to him: that the headaches had indeed gone away when he'd accepted the morpher, that he'd felt like a piece had clicked into place when he'd morphed for the first time. And Dillon could use a few more pieces of his life clicking together.

And he had to admit that when he'd run across the trio's discussions of Ziggy Grover, he could well believe that they hadn't had any choice in the matter, and neither had he.

Which still didn't mean that he had to like it. No matter what had chosen him, he didn't like being tied down to one place, especially with someone out there that he was looking for. Bashing the hell out of the Grinders didn't mean anything when he felt like he still had something to do.

On the other hand, being a Ranger meant that he could walk unmolested through Corinth City despite the Venjix hardware in his body. He didn't mind that, at all. If he had to be stuck in Corinth, at least it wasn't in prison. Even the occasional person looking at him in awe or thanking him for things he hadn't done didn't bother him much.

And at least the team had let him be and given him the privacy he'd wanted when they'd turned their attention to finding their fifth.

"So, how was training?" Summer asked. She always tried to be social with him, and he had to admit that he didn't mind talking, because at least she left him alone most of the time.

"Long," he said. The less said about it, the better. "Doctor K's decided I need practice with my shield." He did, but he resented the way that K did it. "You?"

She shrugged. "Evasion." He'd noticed that every single one of them had training at least every other day. He wondered how Doctor K manage that, and how things would work if they got this guy who didn't know how to fight. Maybe it meant less time in training for him. It was about time Doctor K got a new punching bag.

"So, any progress with the new guy?" He had left shortly after the others had gone looking for "Mr. Ziggy", and had only heard that they'd found him, taken him to the hospital, and hoped he stayed there and didn't wander off.

"We're going to test him tomorrow," she said. He knew it wasn't really a test as such; more a sitting there and hoping the morpher came out of the case. "We would have taken him out earlier, but the doctors wanted to make sure of things before releasing him to us."

Definitely better the new guy than him. They could bother somebody else, for a change. He shrugged. It wasn't probably the interaction that Summer wanted, but he didn't care.

"Flynn's going to go and visit him," Summer said. "Want to go along? You know, kind of get to know your new teammate."

"No thanks." Sometimes, their acceptance of reluctant new teammates could be kind of disturbing. Like they were stuck with him and stuck with this Ziggy, and were determined to make the best of all of it in a way over-cheerful way.

She smiled at him, and let him be, but he had a feeling that wasn't the end of it.

Flynn walked by a short few minutes later. "So, want to go see Ziggy?" he asked casually.

They were going to harass him about it, apparently. While he could see why - the Black and Green suits had similar morphers, as if the two were to be a pair - he didn't want really to be a part of it. Especially if they might be wrong.

He wasn't happy about it, but maybe if he went they would shut up.

"I might as well," he said dubiously.

Flynn beamed at that. They ended up in his truck, driving down to the hospital, and were in minutes headed up to where his future teammate was supposed to be.

Except he wasn't.

"Odin's beard!" Flynn cursed, looking in a closet. "He's done a run again." Dillon wasn't sure on why Flynn was so upset. If they guy left, he left, and as long as he was relatively all right, did it matter? He probably was making up his own mind.

With that, Flynn was out to the nurses station, telling them that Ziggy Grover was missing. Apparently that required a call to the military, because something about Ranger candidates that Dillon didn't quite follow.

As everybody started scrambling, Flynn joined him again. "And he was so cooperative…."

Dillon shrugged. "He's gone now." If he was their fifth ranger, then he'd come back. Simple as that.

"It just doesn't make any sense…." Flynn was starting to pace. "I mean, he was totally working with us. And he had to have left of his own free will. I mean, who would have taken him?"

He would have been surprised to find the answer was a few floors down.

Ms. Robinson had come up to visit him, an urgent look on her face. "Ziggy, we have to go, it's urgent," she'd said, as she'd rushed him to get dressed. He'd assumed it was Cartel problems, or something that had come up with law enforcement. Probably the Cartels, because he was sure that testing as a Ranger was making the Law give him some breathing space. Once he failed the Ranger test, things would go back to normal.

It was too bad that he wouldn't get a chance to test - it would be kind of interesting to see what tests he'd fail - but, well, even the Rangers made mistakes, didn't they? On the other hand, apparently there had been an order to bring him in for testing. They were kind of insistent about it. The only reason he hadn't known is that he'd been keeping a very low profile.

There had been that encounter when one of the Boys had told him that "even the Rangers were looking for" him, but he'd figured he'd done something piss them off as well and hiding worked anyway.

"So, what's going on?" he asked as they worked their way down one of the stairwells. The elevators would have been faster, but far too public, and he didn't have a problem if it meant nobody noticed.

"You're going to be released tomorrow." Angelie Robinson was biting her lip. It was a bad sign.

"Not that I know of." He was scheduled for some tests, but they hadn't said anything about leaving the hospital.

"If they didn't tell you, Ziggy, then something's wrong." Ms. Robinson put her hand on his shoulder as they paused at a landing. "I don't like this, not at all. It's not right."

"The Cartel people would have to be pretty pissed to go after me at the hospital."

"It's not the Cartel people, Ziggy. It's the Rangers."

That made him stop and blink, even as she tried to urge him to the next step. "Why would the Rangers test me when I'm not even ready to be released?"

"I don't know, but… I don't think it can be anything good." She was still biting her lip. "I don't think they have any right to take you out like this. I'd rather have you where they can't find you."

"Hey, if they test me when I'm still injured… that means even less chance to pass their tests!" Ziggy reminded her. How much luckier could he get?

"Ziggy, I'm just afraid… what if you pass their tests?" Ms. Robinson asked. "What if the tests are a sham? What if they need you, for some reason?"

It hadn't occurred to Ziggy that they might be looking specifically for him. "But they reject people all the time?"

"They probably have to," Ms. Robinson said. "I just can't shake this feeling. I came out last time just before two of the Rangers came to visit, and they were mentioning you as a teammate, not someone to be tested." She sighed. "Have you read any Mercedes Lackey?"

Ziggy shook his head. "Heard of her, but never read her."

"There was a thief in one of her books, chosen so that he could help foil a plot against the Crown." She shook her head. "He was a sweet guy, nice, in some bad circumstances, and every time I see you…."

"Did he die?" Ziggy felt he had to ask.

"I don't know. I stopped reading Mercedes Lackey." She gave him a slight smile. "But I just think of what could happen to you if the Rangers find you."

"It's all right," Ziggy said with confidence. "I'm not him. And even if it happens, I bet they know I can't fight. I told them that." She was worried for him, which was nice, but he wasn't worried for himself. He looked down the stairs. "Maybe I should go back before anybody worries about me."

"Are you sure, Ziggy?" Angelie Robinson asked.

"I'm sure." He smiled at her. "I'll just go back. Nobody will have noticed I'm missing. I'll just go up the elevator and sneak back in."

"All right," she said. She took his arm, clearly still disturbed, and helped him down to the next landing.

They opened the door. There was a soldier outside, holding a gun. "Um, hi?" Ziggy asked, raising his hands.

After a discussion over walkie-talkie, the soldier escorted him and Ms. Robinson upstairs.

Flynn was waiting as the soldier escorted Ziggy Grover and a woman he somewhat recognized back to Ziggy's room. "Found them at the second floor stairwell entrance," the soldier said.

"Thank you," Flynn said. He didn't have much to do with the military, but when it came to disappearing Rangers-to-be, he was glad for their help.

He was left with Ziggy and the woman, whose name he couldn't recall. Dillon came sliding into the room. "So, you are again?"

"Angelie Robinson." She was a plump, middle-aged woman with defiance in her eyes, and Flynn had to wonder how voluntary Ziggy's exit had been. "And yes, I was the one who got him to leave. So, don't go punishing him for something I did."

He remembered who she was now, the woman who ran the orphanage Ziggy had been working for when they'd found him.

"We're not going to punish him," Flynn said. "It's just… he's supposed to be testing for Ranger, after all." He wondered why she was so worried. Well, other than the reason they were all worried about testing someone who was not used to fighting.

"Your test is a sham," she said, challenging him. "I heard you yesterday, talking to your teammate."

Ziggy was looking between him and Ms. Robinson with wide eyes.

"It's not a sham," Flynn said, trying to figure out what to say without giving everything away. "We've been testing him before, he's passed two of the three."

"Wait a minute, I've been passing your tests?" Ziggy asked. Flynn couldn't blame him for being surprised.

"Yes, you have, lad." He gave his almost-certain teammate a smile. "You passed the first a few weeks ago, that's when we started looking for you. We would have gotten to you earlier, but we lost you. You passed the second during that incident with the tree."

"I, Ziggy Grover, who by the way is not a warrior in any way, shape, or form, has been passing your tests." Ziggy seemed dazed by the revelation.

"Yes," Flynn said. "It's not muscle we test on, lad." Ziggy wasn't a whole lot younger than he was, really, but he seemed younger than his eighteen years. "Fighting skill can be trained. Other things can't."

They'd have to bar Angelie Robinson from Ziggy Grover's hospital room, that was for sure. He didn't mind protective women, but she was only making things worse for Ziggy, if he was the Operator they thought he was, or even if he wasn't. At least it wasn't for too long; once Ziggy was bonded to his morpher, he could visit her anytime he wanted, within reason.

"I see," she said. She wasn't happy about it, but at least she'd seen sense. "Well, if Ziggy isn't worried about it…."

So, Ziggy was cooperative, after all. It was as if he had some sense of his almost-certain destiny. At least Flynn's first impression had been right; Ziggy Grover was walking into what he was with eyes wide open and heart willing.

Maybe everything would go all right, after all.


	6. The Test That Wasn't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ziggy finally gets to test, gets some things answered, and goes to pick up his things.

It was time, apparently.

They'd put an armed guard on his room, after Angelie Robinson tried to take him away. He couldn't help but feel nervous, but he assured himself that if the Rangers were right, they'd find some way to make sure he could fight. And if they were wrong, which he still kinda hoped they were, then maybe they had picked up the bill for his hospital stay, and then he could go back to helping Ms. Robinson.

"So, I guess I'm getting to go home with you guys," he said to Summer Landsdown as their Ranger Red, Scott Truman, wrestled with paperwork.

"Yes," she said, smiling. "And if we're wrong… I'm sure that the kids will be happy to see you back."

Not far away, Dr. Kolchak had come in the room and was talking to Scott Truman about medications and care instructions. Ziggy hoped that the Rangers would spring for the medications, even if he turned out not to be one of them.

"Yeah," he said sunnily. "I'm really, really good with kids."

After a while, he was back in his clothes and being helped out in a wheelchair to a blue truck, where Flynn McAllistair made sure he was belted up nicely.

It was a nice day in Corinth, and Ziggy watched as they drove through town to where the Ranger base was. He was surprised to see that it was in the building he'd passed by so often on his walks, and wondered if he'd come to their attention because of that. He reminded himself that it wasn't likely, and sheer coincidence.

Flynn McAllistair drove inside, and they came to a stop inside what was plainly a garage. "We're here," Flynn said cheerfully, as he got out, coming to the other side to help Ziggy out. "Hey, Doctor K, where do you want him?"

"Please place him in the usual area," a disembodied voice said.

Ziggy looked around, and spotted a screen that said "K"; wherever K was, he was clearly not right there with him. "So, where do you want me to do whatever?"

"Come with me over here," Flynn said. Ziggy looked over his shoulder to see Summer and Scott looking expectantly, and Dillon, the team's newest member, looking a bit bored.

"Hey, you were together in the rain," he said, making the association. "At the park!"

Summer grinned at that. "We were getting Dillon to come join us," she said, then looked at Scott and Flynn, the grin dropping. "And so close to finding you."

Man, these people were serious about finding candidates. He turned his attention back to the way they were heading. He figured it wasn't a gym or testing range, because of what they'd said the previous day.

The door to the next room opened, and Flynn and the others were quickly forgotten as he saw was was just inside. He rushed towards the uniform in the darkened box, the uniform that he swore he'd been dreaming about all the weeks before. It was light green, shark-themed, and he bet if he saw the helmet, it would have a fin.

And it was pulsing softly in the light, as if reacting to his presence.

He massaged the glass, knowing that there should be no reason he should be drawn to it, but still he was. He couldn't take his eyes off the uniform in front of him, sitting alongside the others'.

Something landing on his foot interrupted his reverie, and he bent down reluctantly and picked it up. It was a rectangular thing with a large handle on one end, with a pair of straps to hold it to someone's wrist.

He turned to tell the Rangers that he'd caused something to drop out of nowhere - well, probably jostled something on top of the displace case, that was all - when he noticed the three original Rangers giving him broad grins.

Then they were joining him, at least everyone except Dillon. "Welcome to the team," Scott said.

"Um, this dropped," Ziggy said, offering them the thing in his hands. "And, you know, I'm not that clumsy, so you know it was something special, and-"

"Well, of course it dropped for you," Summer said. "It's your morpher."

Ziggy looked down at the object. "His" morpher?

"Congratulations, Ziggy," Flynn said warmly. "Let's sit you down for a bit, okay?"

Ziggy stared at the morpher, hoping that it might tell him why he'd suddenly been selected for the unexpected honor. Ms. Robinson's words came back to him, about the thief in the book, and he hoped he'd be with them longer than that.

He let Flynn and the others lead him to a set of couches and chairs near a kitchen area. "So, um… I passed the test?"

"With flying colors, man." Flynn was still grinning at him. "I had that reaction too, when I first saw my suit."

"Oh." So that was the test, seeing if the suit reacted to him. "So, when the suit reacted to me, you knew I was… but…." It was a rather bizarre test.

"The armor and morphers react to a predetermined user," the screen said. "It is merely a matter of testing."

"In other words," Summer said, "Doctor K found out a while ago that the morphers had pre-selected their users and attached to their biofields. It wasn't a complete bond, but it was enough that it started affecting us."

Whatever biofields were, but Ziggy didn't want to interrupt, and besides, he had a feeling that this was going to be one of those long speeches that people sometimes had to give in movies and TV.

"Each of us kept seeing a color and our suits," Flynn added. "I couldn't stand it any longer, so I ended up coming in the door to this place. Summer did the same. Scott and Dillon had headaches before they got the idea to come. And you? I guess you got the rough end of the stick, if you were getting migraines."

Ziggy remembered how he'd been drawn to the building, how he'd felt compelled to pass by.

"You had the same expression we all did in the security footage," Summer said. "We've been stuck trying to figure out who comes by that doesn't seem to belong."

"That was the first test," Ziggy said. It kind of made sense, in a weird way.

"And when we heard that you were getting migraines and dreaming of your suit," Scott said, "Well, even I was convinced."

So, test number two. But…. "Wait. I never told you guys about the suit. Or the migraines."

"Aye, but Lydia did," Flynn said. "Told Scott right out when he asked."

Somehow, he wasn't surprised one of the kids had said something. "So… I'm a Ranger." He was still getting his mind around that.

"You still have to bond with your morpher, but yes." Scott indicated the morpher he held in his hand.

"And they don't take 'no' for an answer," Dillon said, speaking up for the first time. Ziggy looked over at him, realizing that he wasn't happy about the whole thing, and it probably wasn't about Ziggy himself.

Maybe he wasn't the only one who didn't want to be a Ranger.

"We do," Summer said, making a motion at the team. "It's the morphers that don't."

Dillon made something that could have been a nod.

"I guess yours was getting tired of you not paying attention," Flynn joked. Or at least Ziggy hoped it was a joke. "Headaches seem to be the big symptom."

"And if you bond," Summer said, "Your headaches should go away."

Even as they and he knew he had no choice in the matter, they were still giving him the chance to leave. More or less. He had no doubt that he'd be bothered until he did take it up.

And was it really a bad thing, to go save the world?

Ziggy thought it was immensely stupid to volunteer him to do it, but apparently, he was going to be part of this fight.

"Okay," he said, "What do I do?"

It turned out to be simple; just pull the handle and morph, and then detransform. It felt a little weird, but he hoped that when it was time for the pain meds to wear off, the headache would be gone.

"Here's your room," Flynn said, taking him to a green-painted room up on the second floor. "We got bedding and such for you."

"Which is good," Scott said, "Because you're not even going to start training or active duty until you heal more." Scott's look was reassuring, and Ziggy could almost forget he'd been whomped by a tree. "Doctor K's going to evaluate your skills in a few days and then we'll have a good idea of what you need."

At least he was going to learn how to fight. This wasn't so bad. Hopefully Venjix would give them a few days as well.

"You'll be wanting to pick up your stuff from the orphanage?" Flynn asked. Ziggy didn't know how much they trusted Ms. Robinson, and he didn't blame him, but some things a person had to gather for himself.

"Yes," he said.

"I'll take you," Flynn said. "Help you out while you're still injured."

Make sure he didn't wander off or get wandered off, from what he'd overheard Flynn saying the day before, but he wouldn't say it if Flynn didn't.

So, he was helped back into Flynn's truck, and they drove to the orphanage, Ziggy giving directions. He led Flynn to the orphanage's front door, knocking on it so as to not alarm Ms. Robinson or the kids.

He was greeted by about half of them, crowding the stair and hall to see him again. "Mr. Ziggy," he was greeted, multiple times, by eager kids, and it took Angelie Robinson a minute or two to wade into the area.

"Ziggy, you're back?" she asked. She eyed Flynn. "You passed, didn't you?" She looked worried, as if he was one of her kids instead of one of her helpers.

"Um, yeah, I guess I'm gonna be a Power Ranger now," Ziggy said. The kids thought that was the greatest thing in the world, from their cheers. "So, I gotta pack up and go move in with the other Rangers so I can save everyone."

"Mr. Ziggy's going to be a Power Ranger!" Arcie announced. He looked none the worse for wear for having Ziggy practically land on him. "Are you a shark?"

Ziggy nodded, not trusting his voice.

"Aye, he's a shark." Flynn was all smiles. "And we wouldn't have found him if he hadn't saved Arcie here. That's how we knew he was going to be a hero."

"We should let Mr. Ziggy pack up," Ms. Robinson told the kids. "I'm sure he's still resting from saving Arcie from the tree, and the Rangers must need him very badly…."

He caught her tone and her fear, but he knew nothing he'd say would reassure her.

"And I'm sure he'll come visit every so often and maybe bring things to us," Ms. Robinson was reassuring the kids. "But we have to let him go and get his things now."

She gently shooed the kids out of the hall, and Ziggy headed towards the stairs down to the basement. Ms. Robinson caught his arm gently. "Ziggy, can I talk to you for a moment? Privately?" Looking over at Flynn, she added, "I promise, I'm not going to make him disappear, I just have to ask him something rather personal."

"We'll… stay in sight," Ziggy promised. His former boss pulled him to one side, well within Flynn's view.

"I know this might be a bit much to ask, now that you're a Ranger and all," Ms. Robinson said, "But… if you find yourself with some extra… things that don't quite belong to you, could you pass them our way? We need them."

"I'll see what I can do," he said, knowing what she was asking for. Things tended to come into his possession that didn't belong to him, and the orphanage could use what he could scavenge up.

"Thank you," she said gratefully. "I… I'm worried for you, but I guess you've got a destiny ahead of you." She looked over and raised her voice. "And I'm holding you to your promise to treat him like your little brother," she told Flynn.

"Aye, I promised, and I will," Flynn said. "Which way to your room, Ziggy?"

Ziggy led him downstairs, where they gathered his stuff and hauled it back to Flynn's truck. Along the way, he was presented with multiple sheets of paper from grateful kids, much to Flynn's amusement.

Soon enough, they were on their way, and Ziggy couldn't help but hope he didn't foul things up.


	7. Driving Me Crazy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dillon isn't the only one who has second thoughts about being a Ranger.

Dillon looked up as his newest teammate, Ziggy Grover, collapsed onto the couch near where he was sitting. He supposed he should be grateful; with the amount of training Ziggy had to do to learn how to fight, Doctor K had little time to bother him. And with the other three out visiting Flynn's father, the two of them had the base to themselves.

And it wasn't like Ziggy hadn't taken on his duties with the same enthusiasm everyone else shared. It seemed to bother none of them that they were being forced to defend the city because a piece of equipment had determined they should. That they were in a way slaves to their own morphers and their own city's needs. Yeah, the morphers didn't do much more than force their Operators to come and bond, but once bonded, it was hard to leave.

"I'm so tired!" Ziggy announced, as usual not bothered by the fact that Dillon hadn't spoken to him. Dillon had to admit that it was nice that apart from talking incessantly, Ziggy didn't bother him at all. Ziggy was very willing to live and let live. "Man, I feel great, but the training schedule is tough!"

Dillon was expecting a snarky response from Doctor K, but there was none. Apparently that was an honor only bestowed on people who talked back to him, not clueless newbies.

A little bit more quietly, Ziggy added, "I think the morpher made a mistake." Dillon could see why he'd lowered his voice. Doctor K had some serious sore spots, and one of them was that the morphers had made mistakes in choosing the people it did. Personally, Dillon thought the doc had too much pride to admit that the morphers had screwed up.

He realized a second later that he was expected to, as Doctor K had put it, "Boost Ranger Green's confidence to a reasonable extent, especially as it pertains to his morpher and bond."

"Yeah?" If Doctor K was listening - Dillon hoped not, but it could be - that could easily be construed as "tell me more so I can help you out."

"Yeah. I mean, it's an honor and everything, but don't you think that it, um, could have attached to the wrong biofield? I mean, I used to belong to a cartel, I've been arrested plenty of times, and I always relied on my words to get me out of things, not my fists. I'm not exactly role model material! I just don't think that it chose right."

"Apparently, even if it did, you're stuck with it. Might as well do the best you can." Ziggy knew the truth about what it was like, to be what you didn't think you could be. "It's not like we ever had a choice."

"Yeah, we kind of didn't did we?" Ziggy scratched his head. "I know everyone said it was a choice and all, and I'm glad to get rid of the migraines, but I can't help but think that maybe I should have kept running."

Maybe they should have kept running, both of them. He should have stayed the hell away from Corinth, and Ziggy should have kept to his daycare job. Both of them would have been a lot happier.

There were settlements in the wastes. Settlements that would be happy to have a strong young man in there and wouldn't ask questions about where that strength came from, and would love to have someone like Ziggy take care of the kids. They weren't as safe as Corinth, but they were a whole lot less involved.

"We can still run," he said. "And I don't know about you, but I'm leaving. Want to come with me?"

Scott, Summer, and Flynn were happy as they were. They could stay. He and Ziggy didn't belong, and hell if he was going to let this force them to stay. After all, there had to be some way out of the city.

"Um…." Ziggy was obviously caught by indecision. "But where can we hide?"

"The Wastes." He could see Ziggy's eyes widen at the prospect.

"Ranger Operator Series Black," Doctor K said, screen activating suddenly, "Neither you nor Ranger Green have permission to leave base, much less Corinth. May I remind you we have a city to defend?"

"I have someone to find, which I've made very clear. Multiple times. And I don't think Ziggy's going to be your puppet, either."

Societal controls were only for those who cared. He didn't. The morphers might have made both of them into Rangers, but they still had their free will. And now that they were Rangers, there was nothing forcing them to stay.

"Um." Ziggy was looking between them, as if not sure whether to follow Dillon or obey Doctor K.

"I had Venjix hardware forced into my body, Doc. I didn't ask for that, and I didn't ask to be a Ranger, and if you're going to tell me you're so morally superior because someone else built Venjix and you only built the morphers that we didn't have any choice but to bond to, then don't even bother."

The voice was silent for quite a few seconds, and then Doctor K spoke up again"I can have both you and Ranger Green restrained, if needs be, until-"

"What, until we're as brainwashed as the rest of your merry troupe of Rangers? Sorry, Doc. We're leaving. Now. Ziggy, if you want to take anything, I suggest you get it now, because we're leaving."

"You really wouldn't do that, would you?" Ziggy asked the screen. "I mean, he's got some pretty valid points." He was so wide-eyed that Dillon wondered if he was doing it on purpose. Probably was.

"Whether or not Ranger Operator Series Black has valid points, by his words and actions, he has indicated that he is willing to endanger this city by his departure. While I regret the semi-sentience of the morphers that have led two of them to choose you and Ranger Black despite his unwillingness and your… self-esteem problems, I must work with what they have chosen. It is apparent that neither you nor Ranger Black are in your right minds at the moment."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm in my left mind," Ziggy said, raising a finger in the air. "GIven I'm right-handed and all."

"I am talking about your emotional state, not your dominant brain hemisphere," Doctor K said, and Dillon had to marvel at Ziggy's ability to distract. He threw what little he owned back into his car, and then went back upstairs to grab what he could of Ziggy's stuff while Ziggy was talking to Doctor K.

"But, um, if you drug us, wouldn't that prove Dillon's point?" Ziggy asked. "I don't know if it's really better to make us do this if we're not meant to. And, getting gassed? Really doesn't make me want to trust you."

Dillon smirked. Ziggy was bringing up his points in a way that Doctor K would sound like an ass no matter how he answered.

Doctor K made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a sigh. "I cannot compromise on this city's safety," he said. "I'll do whatever I have to, even as I'm aware that it seems like tyranny. I am hoping that you, Ranger Green, see reason on this. After all, no matter your background, you have shown willingness to learn to fight and defend this city. And you, Ranger Black, I wish you to know that while this interrupts your search for the person that you are looking for, it is ultimately for the best. Will there be a place for you to bring them back to if you do not defend Corinth?"

"It still doesn't explain why your precious morphers chose me, someone with Venjix hardware in his system, and Ziggy, who used to pick pockets." Ziggy's distraction wasn't working; he'd have to find something else to keep the doctor from gassing them.

"If I could have chosen my own candidates, Ranger Black, instead of, as you put it, 'forcing' both you and Ranger Green to become Rangers when you normally wouldn't have been under consideration, I would have. And while the criteria they used is unknown, I have faith that they chose both of you for reasons that you, and I, cannot comprehend. All I can do is facilitate things so that you remain healthy, of sane a mind as I can keep you, and willing to serve."

"Hey, um," Ziggy spoke up. "I actually don't mind, even though I think the morpher still got it wrong, I can get trained and do whatever you need me to do. But, well, Dillon? He's got a lot of point there. If you want to make things easier for us? I think it would be a really good idea to help him out. After all, I think he'd be more willing if we all helped him find who he's looking for. Like, help him recover his memories and follow up leads, and that sort of thing."

"I had actually been considering such a thing," Doctor K admitted.

"I'm not sure if I can trust someone whose face I can't see, and who could be miles away," Dillon said. Ziggy was proving to be a less-than reliable ally, because he was uncertain enough about who to trust, and he might have to stay there just to protect the younger man.

Doctor K was silent for a few minutes, and as every minute passed, Dillon tensed more, wondering if he should throw Ziggy's stuff - and Ziggy - into the car and take off.

"Come into the testing area," the voice said finally.

Dillon put his hands on his hips. "Nope, not doing that." He didn't trust Doctor K to not trap them in there. Ziggy supposedly had teleportation in suit, but from what he'd overheard, the last time Ziggy had tried to teleport, he'd teleported his suit, helmet, and all his clothes, leaving him naked in the training room and Doctor K having to ask someone to grab Ziggy some boxers.

Yeah, not trusting him at all. "You know what? I think I'm just going to leave." He grabbed the flailing Ziggy, stuffing him into the back, and got behind the wheel of his car, driving off.


	8. Running Rogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doctor K is almost prepared for things like this.

Calls from Doctor K were never good.

"Ranger Red," the disembodied voice said, "Ranger Black has kidnapped Ranger Green and departed base. I believe he intends to return to the Wastes."

Scott pinched his nose. "Great." He wasn't sure why Dillon was kidnapping Ziggy, but Dillon's desire to find whatever he was out there trying to find had been an issue of contention for the time he'd been a Ranger. "Why'd he kidnap Ziggy?"

Their new member was really bad at fighting, but then again, he'd given them ample warning that he was. He'd been enthusiastic and it was hard not to like him, especially as he'd taken on his powers with little hesitation. What he lacked in self-esteem he made up for in willingness to do, and Scott could deal with that. Yes, his jokes needed work, but maybe they'd go away when Ziggy felt more comfortable.

"I believe that Ranger Green's self-esteem regarding his bond came up as an issue, and Ranger Black thought that Ranger Green believed the same things he did."

Taking a second to parse Doctor K's words, he wished sometimes that Ziggy had come with a little more belief in himself. "Do you know where they are?"

"Yes," Doctor K said. "I am tracking them through the morphers." There was a momentary pause, and he added, "I also injected a tracking device into Ranger Green while updating his immunizations, given his history of disappearing on us."

Scott was glad for the foresight on Doctor K's part. "I'll grab Flynn and Summer. Keep me updated."

He took Summer and Flynn to one side. "What is it with Ziggy and getting kidnapped?" Flynn asked. "I mean, the man wants to break with his past and be a good person, and everyone wants to keep him from doing that."

"Can we figure that out later, and recover our rogue Ranger first?" Scott asked. "Summer?"

"I'm just glad that Doctor K thought of that," Summer said. "Let's go. I'm sure I can talk Dillon into staying. And I don't think Ziggy's staying silent, either."

"RIght," Scott said, heading for his car. The others did the same.

Ziggy, once he got over the shock of being kidnapped by his teammate, albeit a very unwilling one, had quickly righted himself and buckled up. He'd seen Dillon's driving, and he didn't intend to be tossed out of the car by accident. On purpose was another matter. "You're sure this is a good idea?" he asked.

"You want to get brainwashed?" Dillon demanded. "Because that's what will happen if we stay there. Become good little soldiers for the city of Corinth."

"Isn't that the general idea? I mean, that's what we're supposed to be doing, after all." Defending the city. No matter how much his morpher had screwed up, he was determined to make the best of it. "But if you want to leave, I'll support you."

Dillon was big, powerful, and Ziggy didn't see the point in him staying if he didn't like it there. Plus, big, powerful guys were guys that Ziggy didn't like crossing. He tended to get hurt that way.

"And that's the point," Dillon said. "Nobody else would be willing to back me up here. You belong as much as I do."

"That's debatable," Ziggy said. "I mean, I might belong, but hey, you know yourself best." He did belong to something, something good, for the first time in his life. Dillon thought differently, and Ziggy wasn't stupid enough to stop him.

"Let me put it this way, if I was about to go through a gate, would you stop me?"

"I'd hope you'd let me off first, but hey, if it gets you out to where you want to be, I'm not going to stop you."

Dillon seemed to be debating something, and then turned a corner. "We're going out gate 14."

Ziggy wracked his brain trying to figure out his plan. "Why?"

"Less Venjix presence. Better chance for you to get back, if you want to." Dillon concentrated on driving. "There are settlements in the wastes, you know."

"Yeah, but I'm kind of planning on defending Corinth," Ziggy said. "No matter how really stupid it was to choose me."

As they passed through an industrial section, Dillon held one hand out. "Your morpher."

Ziggy knew what he was planning. Doctor K and the others couldn't track them without their morphers, couldn't stop Dillon from leaving. Which was okay by Ziggy; he could get his morpher back when he returned to Corinth. He took the morpher out of the holder and handed it to Dillon without protest.

Dillon, surprisingly, slowed down to a crawl, enough to toss two morphers out the window, and then returned to his normal speed. "Did you bring enough to survive?" Ziggy asked. Maybe he could bargain a day's worth of food and water from Dillon, enough to get him back to Corinth once Dillon let him out.

"Always do."

It was kind of scary, and exciting in a way, once he got used to the idea that he was going to be leaving the safety of Corinth. Without the morphers, nobody would know where Dillon was going until it was too late.

Ziggy had only been in the Wastes briefly before he'd gotten to Corinth with Fresno Bob, and he didn't really want to be out there again, but it wasn't like he had a huge choice in the matter. Not with Dillon mostly convinced that he, Ziggy Grover, wanted to be out of there.

Dillon made more than a few turns, and ZIggy recognized what he was doing. He didn't want the others to figure it out, know where he was planning to leave. Standard law enforcement evasion. He'd learned it when he ran with the Scorpion Cartel.

As they went down a particularly long block, he saw a car screeching in, blocking the street ahead. Scott! He looked behind him, and saw that Flynn's truck had pulled up, blocking the other way. "I think we have trouble. With a capital Trouble."

"You'd better be buckled in," Dillon said, as he revved up his engine.

"I'm buckled! I'm very buckled." He could see what Dillon was trying to do - either force Scott's car out of the way, or drive through the gap between the car and the building.

"Dillon, don't!" Summer was beside them on her motorcycle. "Whatever's going on, let's talk about it."

"I don't trust Doctor K," Dillon said. "Sorry."

"Come on, Dillon, at least let Ziggy go," Summer pleaded.

"Can't do that," Dillon told her. "We're both leaving, now."

Dillon banked suddenly, and then there was an overly-loud boom. Ziggy saw Summer accelerate out of the way before Dillon was forced to come to a stop.


	9. Hostile Negotiations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ziggy is better at negotiating than Dillon, but not by much. Doctor K tries to hold onto her team.

Okay, apparently the two of them weren't going anywhere. One of the others must have blown out Dillon's tires. Which did stop him, but Ziggy could see that it wasn't helping. Dillon was tense, and the other three didn't look very much happier.

It figured that he was going to have to use what gifts he did have to defuse the whole thing. The whole him being a hostage thing was not going to help, or maybe it would.

"Stay in the car," Dillon told him.

"You're going to need someone with a gift for words," Ziggy told him. "I may not be a good fighter, but I'm really good at talking." Talking, especially diplomatically, was not Dillon's strong point. He made a good front-line fighter, but he was really blunt sometimes.

"Yeah, and if you step out of there, someone's going to grab you," Dillon said.

"You can grab me right back," Ziggy told him. He had to get Dillon to trust him if he was going to talk the others into anything. "I trust you to do that for me."

"You don't want to leave Corinth, and yet you're willing to let me take you out to the Wastes." Dillon's disbelief was palpable.

"Hey, I don't think you're going to be able to get out of here without a hostage," Ziggy pointed out. Sure, he wasn't really a hostage, but he was willing to play the part if it got him out of the situation safely. "And unlike them, I think that if you want to leave, you should be able to."

"Right. Stay in the car anyway." Dillon slid out of the car, confronting their three teammates, keeping himself between them and Ziggy. Probably didn't trust Ziggy that much either.

"So, now are you willing to listen?" Scott asked. ZIggy couldn't see him, but he could imagine the pissed-off look on Scott's face.

"It's not like I have a choice, do I?" Dillon asked. "You blew out my tires."

"Actually, that was me," Flynn said. "Can't have you wandering out like that, after all."

"See what I told you?" Dillon said, and Ziggy knew he was addressing him. "Brainwashed."

"Um, maybe I should handle this." He unbuckled himself, and reached for the door handle. But as soon as he got it a slight bit open, Dillon slammed it again.

So Ziggy got out the other side, careful to stay close to the car in case he had to duck back in. He had no doubt Dillon would be pissed off if one of the others grabbed him.

Which turned out to be the case a few seconds later when he was tackled to the ground by Flynn. Actually, he was sure that Flynn had meant to drag him out of the way, but Ziggy had used the momentum to fall to the ground. Flynn rolled to get himself back up, attempting to haul Ziggy back up with him, but Ziggy stayed resolutely on the ground and flailed for the car door. "Have you gone mad?" Flynn hissed. "I'm trying to get you out of here."

"Not until you hear Dillon out," Ziggy said, not bothering with the whisper. "I'm not going anywhere until you do." Flynn was a nice guy, a good guy, but that also made him a good mark. Someone to manipulate for his soft-heartedness. Summer was the same. Scott less so, but being a good guy hampered him here. He didn't think they'd hurt him, and being a bad fighter made him someone to protect rather than attack.

"Have you gone daft?" Flynn asked, trying to get him up enough so that he could be hauled away. Ziggy resolutely kept his body down, trusting gravity to work against Flynn. He wasn't exactly heavy for a guy, but it couldn't be easy to haul somebody who didn't want to be hauled. He grabbed onto the doorhandle for extra support.

He should have stayed in the car, really, getting out had been a stupid move. He couldn't be a hostage if they got him away from Dillon. He'd promised Dillon that he'd be his hostage, and he was going to hold to that promise.

"I made a promise," he said.

"Odin's beard!" Flynn swore.

"And trust me, I'm going to be really pissed off if you try to take me away. Mad enough that I might just stay with Dillon in the wastes." It wasn't his idea of fun, but he had to get them to listen. Was it his fault that Scott had been teaching him to hold to his ideals?

Okay, it was more along the lines of he wasn't really keen on people being forced to do things. He'd become a Ranger willingly once he'd found out he was supposed to be one, but if they were going to force Dillon to stay, it wasn't going to be as good. One shouldn't be forced to be a good guy.

He just hoped that everybody else would understand that.

Scott heard his morpher go off, and knew it was Doctor K. He gave Dillon a good, long glare before moving away to answer it. Dillon wasn't going anywhere, at least not in his car. It didn't help that Ziggy was being bizarrely resistant, but he'd deal with Ziggy's issues later, when Dillon wasn't trying to leave Corinth.

"Ranger Red," Doctor K said, "I'm monitoring the situation through your morphers."

He hoped the voice gave him something more than that. "Any suggestions?"

"Ranger Green seems to be the key to this confrontation," the voice told him. "He has continually defended Ranger Black's decision to leave, even as he has chosen to remain himself. I would suggest that you stop treating him as Ranger Black's hostage and instead let him explain Ranger Black's position. I believe that indulging Ranger Green's suggestions will bring this confrontation to an end. Ranger Black currently has no vehicle in which to leave Corinth, which will give us further chances to defuse his issues. While this is quite an unexpected way for the two of them to start working together, I believe this will build a measure of trust between the two of them, something that may be of use later when dealing with Ranger Black."

"Right. Scott out." He looked at the situation. Dillon was standing at one side of his car, arms folded. Ziggy was on his back, doing his best not to be dragged away by Flynn. Summer was standing there, unsure as to what to do. It was time to do what needed to be done. "Flynn! He's not a hostage, let him go."

"What?" Flynn said, but he let go of Ziggy. "Scott, have you gone mad?"

"Hope not," Scott said. "So, Dillon. Ziggy. Talk."

Ziggy was quickly standing up, grinning. "You're really willing to listen to us? See, Dillon, they're not brainwashed!"

Scott was starting to see why Doctor K had advised them to listen to Ziggy. It built his confidence in himself and the team. Scott just hoped that he could convince Dillon to stay.

"I want to know how they tracked us, first," Dillon said.

Flynn had circled back around to join Scott and Summer. "Doctor K stuck a tracking device on Ziggy, because of his tendency to disappear on us."

Ziggy, startled, shrugged his jacket off and his shirt quickly followed. He was working on his pants when Flynn spoke up again. "'Tis under your skin, Ziggy, can't take it off."

"You know, this doesn't make me trust you guys very much," Ziggy said, though it was odd to hear someone with shirt off and pants half down telling them this. Ziggy shoved his pants back up. "If you trusted me...."

"It's not you we don't trust," Summer said.

"Yeah, it's the people who walk off with you because you're so trusting," Flynn said.

"I'm not trusting, okay?" Ziggy was now looking for his shirt.

"In any case," Scott said, trying to bring the conversation back on track, "If you two have issues, we need to hear them."

"It's simple," Dillon said. "I'm leaving. Ziggy's coming with me."

"But I'll be back," Ziggy said, grabbing his shirt off the ground. "Because I do want to be a Ranger."

"What would make both of you stay?" Scott asked. He remembered Doctor K's advice: let Ziggy run this, let Dillon listen to Ziggy.

"Well, I think Dillon would really, really like to go searching for... the person that he's searching for," Ziggy said, pulling his shirt on. "And, well, I'm not happy when I'm threatened with restraints. Or tracking devices. And there's this whole trust thing with Doctor K."

Scott ran through that mentally. "So, we need to let Dillon out into the Wastes every so often, Doctor K needs to not threaten you with restraints, and one of you doesn't trust Doctor K."

"There's that whole tracking device thing, too," Ziggy said. "And yeah, Dillon doesn't trust someone he can't see. And me? I don't blame him, especially after being shot up with the homing device. Threatens my manhood, you know."

So, basically, he needed to let one Ranger run mostly free, and risk the other getting nabbed. This was not good. He pinched the bridge of his nose again.

Scott's morpher bleeped, and he answered it. "Let me speak," Doctor K said. "I believe that many of their issues involve me."

He held up the morpher, trusting that Doctor K would adjust the volume for him.

"Ranger Black, Ranger Green," Doctor K said, "I believe we were discussing the issue of Ranger Black's searches before Ranger Black took off with Ranger Green."

"You mean," Dillon said, "The fact that I don't trust you."

Dillon was stubborn as hell, and Scott was willing to put up with a certain amount of distrust with him. After all, he did have amnesia and was stuck with Venjix hardware in his body.

However, there was no way he was going to let Dillon leave - and it wasn't just the "brainwashed" thing, though that smarted - because he'd been the one on active duty at the time. Well, Ziggy had been too, but Ziggy hadn't disobeyed orders.

"Dillon," Summer pleaded, "I know that Doctor K is hard to deal with, but he's not lying. He is trustworthy. And Ziggy, he didn't put a tracking device in you to insult you. He was worried about your safety."

"He tried to lure us into the training room to trap us."

"If you had expressed your concern and remained, I would have found another was to prove that, without triggering your feeling of being trapped."

"Hey," Ziggy said, "You figure out a way to prove it, maybe Dillon will stay. Maybe I will too, if you take out my tracking device."

Apparently even willing Ziggy had his sore spots and his pride.

"Then, let's compromise," Doctor K said. "The two of you return to base - willingly. I will prove that I am not engaging in manipulation with either of you. We can discuss what we need to do to help Ranger Black's search, and deactivate the tracking device in Ranger Green."

"How about 'take out the tracking device in Ranger Green'?" Ziggy asked, crossing his arms.

"That is what I said," Doctor K said smoothly.

"We'll talk about it," Dillon said. Taking Ziggy aside, away from the three of them, he and Ziggy talked. Or discussed things. Dillon was obviously unhappy, just as Ziggy was calmer.

"Think they'll cooperate?" Flynn asked, watching the duo.

"Hopefully. I don't think Dillon wants to walk into the Wastes." Dillon loved his car, and Scott was willing to be that he wasn't leaving without it.

Ziggy was the one who came back, Dillon watching carefully. "So," he said, "We're coming back. But, you see, Dillon's really unhappy about this, so if Doctor K doesn't follow through...."

"I have given my word," Doctor K said.

"Then," Ziggy said, "I guess we'll give ours." He looked over at Dillon, giving him a nod. Dillon nodded back.

Scott tried not to sag too much in relief, but it was over.


	10. The Use of a Scalpel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doctor K keeps her promises, and Summer gets creative.

K waited for the Rangers to return. She was unhappy about having to reveal herself, but Ranger Operator Series Black had a point; what reason did they have to trust a screen? She'd been fortunate that the others had not been suspicious, or at least unwilling to voice such suspicions.

She had her plan. First, she would introduce herself to the Operators, answer any questions, and generally assure Ranger Black that she was not a machine. Then she would run a scan of Ranger Green in order to determine where the tracking device had lodged itself. Perhaps she would employ Ranger Yellow or Ranger Blue to convince him that a locator would be a good thing to retain, if only in emergency situations.

However, his remarks out on the street had indicated a certain fear of demasculinization with the retention of the tracking device, so there was a good possibility he would refuse.

She might have to remove and modify it, and then work through his issues, with assistance from the other Rangers, before he would accept it again.

Considering all the issues he might have had, considering his background, she was fortunate that all they had to resolve were a certain lack of self-esteem and fighting ability. Both were fixable. And she was starting to see why he had been chosen to be Series Green; he could anchor Series Black to the team where nobody else was able to. It was obvious that when they bonded Series Black, there had been an increase in the Green morpher's signal, as if aware that they would need Series Green to balance the other Operator. In fact, she had not shared this with the existing Rangers, but Green's signal had lost strength in the days before Ranger Black has approached Corinth, as if aware that they needed to acquire Black before they acquired Green.

Which, no doubt, was why Ziggy Grover had not come to them; without the call, he would not have thought to.

It had, in the end, worked out for the best. Black would be able to help hold Corinth while Green learned how to fight.

She saw on her monitors that the Rangers had returned to base. She knew that Ranger Red had ordered a tow truck for Ranger Black's car; it was best that it be returned to operable condition as soon as possible. She'd noted at some point that Ranger Green needed to learn how to drive, but starting his training as a fighter had taken priority over anything else. At least they had stopped to retrieve the morphers.

Waiting until everyone had converged on the lounge area, she brought up her screen for the last time. "Rangers, please gather at the door to the training room."

As soon as they had, she slid the door open, and then keyed her own entrance to the room. Emerging, she walked around to where the Rangers could see her, and took in their faces. "Greetings. I am Doctor K."

"Seriously?" Ranger Green asked. "You're Doctor K?"

"Were you expecting me to be taller?"

Ranger Green was scratching his head. "I was kind of expecting you to be a dude, actually."

"Does this satisfy your doubts, Ranger Black?" she asked, not wanting to get into a discussion about her gender, perceived or otherwise, with Ranger Green.

Ranger Black looked like he was unsure. "Well, she did agree to show herself," Ranger Green pointed out.

"And help me find whoever I'm trying to find." Ranger Black crossed his arms.

"I have thought of certain searches we can run, including helping you restore your lost memories in order to assist in our search." It was a distraction she could have done without, but if it kept Ranger Black from straying from Corinth where he was needed, she would do it. "And I may point out that I did not 'brainwash' Rangers Red, Yellow, and Blue. They came of their own accord and chose to fight in Corinth's defense. In fact, apart from you, everybody here has a stake in the defense of the city."

He didn't look like he agreed, but as long as he stayed, she didn't care.

"I hope you do as well, someday." She gave him a pointed look. "It is imperative that you understand the reason why the rest of your teammates fight."

Ranger Black scowled at that, but didn't say anything.

"In the meantime," she said, picking up a scanner, "If Ranger Green would please come in, I can locate the tracking device and remove it now."

At least Ranger Green followed her commands. She would have to speak to him and Ranger Red further on how to keep Ranger Black on-base, but that would wait until Ranger Black was no longer within hearing range.

She ran the scanner, gratified to see that the tracking device was still safely lodged in his arm. Given Ranger Green's luck, or lack thereof, it could have been anywhere. "Please remain here while I fetch tools."

"Okay," Ranger Green said. She removed a scalpel from the sterilizer where she kept it; one never knew, after all, when a Ranger might need one of her tools. As she walked over to him, he said, "You're not planning to use that, are you?"

"If you expect me to get it out of your arm, Ranger Operator Series Green," she said, "I must cut it out."

He abruptly shifted his arm away - the one nearest to her, not the one she needed to access - and said, "You know what? I think that maybe keeping it in there isn't such a bad idea after all." She noted the sudden paleness of his skin and deduced that he wasn't very fond of sharp objects near his skin. It was a healthy response for keeping himself safe, but not so useful if she ever had to dig something out of him.

She would have to plan around that, but at least it served a purpose. "Suit yourself."

"You're taking it out of him," Ranger Black said suddenly. "I don't care what you have to do, it's coming out."

"No, it's okay, really." Ranger Green had his hands up and was backing slowly away from her.

Their three teammates were wisely not getting in on this discussion between Rangers Black and Green.

Finally, Ranger Black stepped into the room, walked behind the backing-up Ranger Green, and caught his teammate's shoulders. "You made a promise, you are taking it out of him."

"He has expressed a desire not to have it taken out of him, therefore I am not required to do so." While it was admirable for Ranger Black to try to help out his teammate, she felt no need to cut a perfectly good tracking device out of Ranger Green if she absolutely did not have to do so.

"Ziggy," Ranger Yellow said, coming in the room, "It's really up to you. I don't find you any less a man for having a tracking device in you."

Ranger Green seemed to regain some of his courage at that. "You don't?"

"Nope. I kind of want Doctor K to put one in me, too, just in case something happens to me and I get separated from my morpher. Scott, wouldn't that be a good idea?"

Ranger Red, to be honest, looked less than happy at the idea. "Yeah. I'd take one myself. Flynn?"

"Well, if the two of you are doing it… sure." Ranger Blue looked about as thrilled about the idea as Ranger Red, but their support of Ranger Yellow's emotional manipulation of Ranger Green would make things easier.

"That being said," Ranger Yellow said, "I'd kind of like one that only turned on in emergencies." She turned to Doctor K. "Could you make ones that did that?"

K blinked. This was unexpected, but Ranger Green was excellent at following orders. "If you so wish, I will make tracking devices for the entire team."

"I'm not taking one." Ranger Black's tone was firm.

He needed one more than the others, but she doubted he would allow her to do so. "Then I will leave you out of the program," she said smoothly. She would have to find a way to use the hardware inside him to track him instead.

"In the meantime," Ranger Yellow said, "Why don't you let Doctor K get that tracking device out of you, Ziggy? I know it's tough, but with everything we go through as Rangers, this won't be the last time you'll need to brave a scalpel."

"I'd really, really like it if you got that tracking device out of you," Ranger Black said.

Ranger Green looked between the two of them, over at his other two teammates, and then back at her. "This is going to hurt, isn't it?"

She thought about that for a second. Perhaps she could add to the team bonding by making it easier for Ranger Green. "If you so wish, I can administer a local anesthetic before cutting into your arm. I can also sedate you, if you wish."

"Um. I think I'll just take the local anesthetic and just not look," Ranger Green said.

"Very well. Please proceed over to the chair and I will fetch the necessary tools."

Once she administered the anesthetic, Ranger Green was surprisingly cooperative. He just stared at Ranger Yellow the entire time, and she kept smiling back at him. Rangers Red and Blue lent their silent support. Ranger Black just kept his arms crossed, glaring at her.

She finally retrieved the tracking device and sewed the wound closed. "The cut sustained in my removal of the tracking device," she said, "should heal in your normal timeframe; that is, slightly accelerated due to the bond with your morpher. In addition, the next time you morph, it should heal the wound more."

"Oh, good." Ranger Green grinned at her.

"In the meantime, I suggest that you take the opportunity to rest; not only were you in a tense situation, I believe you were fatigued from your training." She was aware of the levels of exhaustion and fatigue in Ranger Green's system, and if Venjix was to attack, she wanted him to be rested. "I suggest, actually, that all of you rest."

There were still things to take care of, like the return of Ranger Black's vehicle. But that would return in time, and she would discuss plans with Ranger Red shortly on how to prevent a recurrence of the day's events. As her team drifted out, she returned to her hidey-hole, relieved to be alone once more.


	11. Parential Visitations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer's parents want to see her. She's still deciding if this is a good thing.

After Dillon and Ziggy returned to the base, things returned to as normal as they could. That was, everybody trained, Venjix attacked every so often, and the five of them tried to get along.

More or less.

"No, you are not accepting another tracking device, and that's final." Summer turned to see Dillon talking to Ziggy. She doubted he meant to sound like a father forbidding something to his child, but that's how it came across. Dillon had a protective instinct a mile long, you just had to trigger it, and Ziggy had. It wasn't like anybody would complain; as long as something held Dillon to Corinth, the something didn't matter. And it wasn't like Ziggy wasn't starting to be able to fight.

She wondered if Doctor K had noticed; probably had. Probably had factored it into who went with whom in missions.

And Summer wouldn't have been surprised if the green morpher's choice of Ziggy had more to do with his compassion than his fighting ability. In fact, probably Green had chosen someone with no fighting skills, to serve as a reminder of who they protected.

Which had to be tough on Ziggy, but there was little they could do about it.

She turned her attention back towards her book. At least Corinth had been a major publishing area before it had become a domed city, so there were some new books coming out. She was glad that the Corinth library and archive systems had done their best to retain a big sample of books and other materials, because often, the refugees had come with nothing of their own.

Which meant that a lot of the population needed something to read, even if it was pre-apocalypse. Especially if it was pre-apocalypse. It was scary, sometimes, on how people clung to things from before everything had gone to hell.

Including her parents, who were starting to remind her that she'd made a promise to marry Chaz. Wealth and bloodlines still mattered, apparently. Her parents had been horrified that she'd been chosen by her morpher, that she'd become a Ranger, but like Scott and Flynn, and later Ziggy, she'd chosen it with her whole heart.

And, with everything that had happened in the apocalypse, she'd chosen to become a different person. A better person. Summer had been as shallow as Chaz, once, and she'd grown out of it. She hadn't needed her morpher, though that was a really good reason to stay away from her parents; being on active duty as a Ranger gave her a convenient excuse. She very occasionally saw them, but not at the rate that Scott and Flynn saw their fathers.

Hell, Ziggy went to see Ms. Robinson and spend quality time with the kids there more than she saw her parents, it seemed like.

"Everybody else is," Ziggy said. She didn't look up to see his expression, but he was frowning at his teammate. She'd asked him shortly after Dillon's attempted departure about the whole tracking device thing; his response had been that he wouldn't have been so upset about it had Doctor K told him about it before hand and explained it to him.

Considering he'd once been part of a cartel, Ziggy was surprisingly trusting. Which was why Doctor K had put the device in him in the first place.

She forced herself to concentrate on her book and not Dillon and Ziggy's discussion. She'd chosen a particularly vapid romance - well vapid to her eyes, anyway - that was good because she wasn't distracted if she had to put it down to go fight an AttackBot.

Her phone rang, and she sighed. Her parents had to call when she had them on the brain, didn't they? "Summer."

"Summer, darling," her mother said, " Why don't we take you to Ambience tonight?"

Ambience was one of her parents' favorite restaurants, and one she could stand because it wasn't a high-end one. For some reason, either her parents had been charmed by it too, or they figured it was the best way to keep her willing to eat with them.

As long as she had her morpher on her, she should be okay. If something came up, Doctor K could call.

"Okay, mom," she said. "When?"

"We've got reservations at seven," her mother told her. She had to admit, it wasn't like she had a lot going on other than waiting for attacks at the moment.

She stretched. That would give her plenty of time. "I can do that," she said.

"Then we'll pick you up before then," her mother said. For some reason, her mother didn't want her seen on her motorcycle, no matter how much it was her pride and joy. It was apparently something that Landsdowns just didn't do.

If her parents could live with her being a Ranger, she could live with this.

"I'll see you then, bye." She closed her phone, hoping her parents would not be too much of a pain.

Summer thought of joining Dillon and Ziggy's discussion, but decided not to. Ziggy had his own battles to fight, and Dillon wouldn't appreciate it. She just hoped that Ziggy would still accept one of Doctor K's modified trackers so they didn't have to worry about losing him like they almost had when Dillon had taken off with him.

Instead, she headed to the garage area to work on her bike. A good afternoon at that never failed to make her day better, especially if she was dealing with her parents later on.

Scott was working on his own racer, but he raised his eyebrows as she tackled her maintenance. "Did your parents call?"

She sighed; was she so transparent? "Yes. They're taking me out to dinner; probably to guilt me about marrying Chaz."

"You know," he said, looking annoyed, "What part of 'Ranger' do your folks not get?"

"They get 'Ranger'," she said, in their defense. "And a lot of 'Oh, our daughter was chosen by a device, it's not like she had any choice in the matter.'" That part was a little more bitter. "But they're a little stuck in their ways, and when it comes down to it, they're not very flexible." Plus, she got the impression that they'd have married her to Chaz in a heartbeat if she'd not become a Ranger; but she could hardly settle down and have kids if she was busy defending the city. Chaz's family wasn't exactly beyond laying down the guilt thing, either, except they weren't stupid enough to try it with Summer.

In her family and the Winchesters', she might have been an oddball, but they allowed a certain amount of eccentricity because she had no choice in the matter about being a Ranger; and as much as they'd like to join the two families, they valued Corinth not being destroyed first. So, Summer was a Ranger, and the two families very, very carefully tried to convince Summer to get married.

Of course, the last time she'd met Chaz, he didn't quite understand "Summer Landsdown is busy saving the world right now". All he cared about was that she'd look pretty on his arm and would make a great-looking wife and have cute, blond-haired kids. But then, Chaz was always as dumb as a rock, and less of a fighter than even Ziggy. He would never understand the world she'd chosen to be in now.

No wonder she tried to stay away from her parents and the Winchesters as much as humanly possible. Saving the world was a great excuse.

Scott and Flynn had both met her parents; Ziggy and Dillon had not. They'd sort of approved of Scott because of his connection with his father, and raised an eyebrow at Flynn. Heaven knew what they'd think of amnesiac, blunt Dillon and nervous ex-cartel member Ziggy. Of course, they'd probably kept track. They usually did.

"Do you need backup?" Scott asked, and she was glad he was there. But this was not an AttackBot, nothing was that simple. These were her parents being themselves, and she doubted her team leader could do anything to change them from the people they were. Only time might, and she bad her doubts.

"I'll call," she promised. She never had, but she knew someday she might. Someday her parents might go beyond guilt and she might need backup then.

She hoped she never would.


	12. Ambient Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer's parents take her to dinner, and reveal a surprising secret.

Her parents picked her up precisely on time. They didn't come into the Garage; as far as they were concerned, it was too dirty for them. The only reason she lived there was because she'd explained she'd had to; the expressions on her parents' faces was shock, but there were many things they didn't comment on because they wanted Corinth to stay in one piece.

She didn't mind because she didn't want Dillon and Ziggy to have to deal with them. Ziggy was nervous enough as it was, and Dillon had little tolerance for things like that. She suspected that Scott and Flynn only tolerated them because they were her family, and they were both big on family.

"So," her father said, after they'd ordered, "I hear you have two new teammates."

This was going to be about Dillon and Ziggy. She should have guessed. Probably somewhere in there was going to be a guilt trip about the arranged marriage to Chaz, but the first thing they wanted to talk about would be work.

"Yes, Dillon and Ziggy." Her parents no doubt knew the names. "They're doing well." Dillon was a good fighter, and Doctor K was trying her best to keep him happy by running the occasional search. Ziggy was just happy to be doing something good. And the fact he had an honest to goodness job probably helped his mood too.

Her mother sighed. She probably didn't approve of either of Summer's teammates; Summer didn't expect her to. "Those morphers certainly choose some interesting people." She looked at her husband. "If there was any way we could have saved you from this."

"Mom. It's something that I wanted to do." No matter what her parents thought, she liked this job. "If I'd had a choice in the matter, I'd still have chosen to be a Ranger." Scott and Flynn, she knew, would have been the same way. Dillon probably wouldn't have because of his issues; Ziggy probably not either, because he had problems believing he could fight.

She could see her parents looking at each other, trying to comprehend the fact that their little girl would voluntarily choose to live in a "dirty" garage, with four guys.

"Summer," her mother said, "Are you… active with any of them?"

Why the hell was sexual purity coming up at a time like this? Of course, if she said yes, that would probably break the wedding. And her parents' hearts. They believed strongly in keeping promises, if only to people their own social level. She sighed.

"You are, aren't you?" her mother asked. "Please, tell me that if you are, that it's with the Truman boy."

"Scott is my commanding officer," Summer said with some exasperation. "And anyway, even if I was sleeping with one of my teammates, I'm on this thing called 'birth control' because I can't afford to have kids right now."

She would prefer to marry one of them, rather than Chaz, but she loved her parents enough that she didn't want to hurt them while ending any chance of marriage to him.

Her parents were still looking at her like she'd told them she was sleeping with Ziggy, so she decided changing the subject would be a good thing.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

She was surprised when her mother started examining the table, tracing the wood grain, and her father looked at her mother, worried.

"I…." Her mother looked at her. "It's time to be straight with you." She looked at her husband. "We're broke; the only thing we have of value is the Diamond, and that's because we wanted to give you something for when you got married."

"Most of our money was tied up in investments, and you know what happened to those when the world collapsed," her father said.

"That's why we want you to get married, honey; we wanted you to have a beautiful future. The Winchesters want you, and we want you to be safe and secure. It's… we don't want you risking your life every day, even though we know you don't really have a choice about it. Besides, Chaz is a nice boy. He'd make you happy, Summer."

She really doubted he would, but her parents were her parents, and they were willing to believe she'd be happy. Desperately believed that she'd be happy if she married Chaz. Had to, in order to keep themselves intact.

"And I think that the Winchesters are not as… tolerant of your associates as we are," her father said. "Especially the recent additions. The only reason they're still willing to go along is because you didn't have a choice about the bond."

"That's why we'd like you to get married, Summer, even though you're still a Ranger," her mother said. "We're afraid that if we wait, they'll find some other girl to marry Chaz off to, and there goes your future!"

"Well, I'm sure he and Brie would look cute together." They would; he was vapid enough, and she could twist him around her little finger and be glad to do so. And they'd go well together.

Much better than herself and Chaz.

"Are you sure you want that, honey?" her mother asked. Her parents were staring at her intensely.

"I'd want Brie to be happy," she said. Brie would probably take it as a weakness on Summer's end, but Summer really didn't care.

Her parents were still staring at her. "Mom, Dad, are you in debt to the Winchesters?" Dillon wasn't the only one who could be blunt on their team. And it made sense.

"Well, yes," her father admitted. "But that's not important. We want your future, our family's future, to be secure."

"We… we found jobs," her mother said, with a sob. "It was the hardest thing ever. And where I work… the callers are so rude! But your father and I didn't want you to worry about us. We wanted you to worry about your own future."

"Besides," her father added, "We want to give the illusion that we're still rich, so that Chaz will marry you. And you don't have to worry about the Winchesters catching on. We've been very discreet in choosing jobs that they'd never think to connect us with."

"I went under my grandmother's maiden name and your great-grandmother's first name," her mother said. "Just so they wouldn't know."

"I'm doing something of the same," her father said. "Appearances are very important, you know."

Her parents had found jobs? Her parents, who would never have done so before?

"Mom, Dad, I'm so proud of you! I still don't want to marry Chaz, but I'm really proud!"

Her mother smiled tentatively, her father the same after looking at her mother for a moment.

"I know you don't want to marry Chaz," her mother said, "But I hope that you'd sacrifice a little, too, for your future. Obviously you wouldn't be able to fully be a wife to him while you're a Ranger, but I think that we and the Winchesters would be happier if you're at least married to one another."

It was definitely guilt trip time from her parents. The only thing was, they were sure that this would bring her happiness in the future, if they could only get her through the now. They were willing to give up their pride and take jobs; could she sacrifice her happiness for her future?

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "It's… I want to make a better future for the family, but I don't think that's the best way to do it. Our ancestors on the Landsdown and Boyleson sides both worked hard so that we could be in our position; I'd like to make them proud, too."

She wasn't stupid; even though she'd never asked Andrews directly, he'd told her about how her parents' fortunes had come about. Hard work, hard work, hard work, and luck.

Summer was a Landsdown, and like her ancestors, she was going to make something of herself.


	13. Changing Minds and Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not selfish to want your child to be truly happy.

Angie Landsdown gazed at her daughter and wished Summer would just understand. She and Ben were doing what they had to do, but Summer had become so stubborn, so resistant ever since she was chosen by her morpher. She wondered how it had happened, why her baby daughter would choose to live a life like she was living.

She'd take her little girl away from it, but she didn't want what was left of her world to end, even if it felt like her world was ending, really.

But at least that had answered the question she and Ben had been asking themselves. A garage full of men, some of which had very… questionable backgrounds, from what she'd heard. At least Summer was on birth control, because Angie didn't see herself being a grandmother to a criminal's child. Or an amnesiac's. The other two were all right, and if Summer did lose her virginity, she did hope that it would be with someone with some social standing, like Scott Truman.

She and Ben had been gentle on Summer because she was their only child, and they hoped that she would give in and marry Chaz Winchester. There were considerations that Summer didn't understand, and she doubted she ever would. The Summer that had wanted to marry rich, handsome Chaz was long gone, and this Summer was in her place.

It said something about how much Summer had changed when she praised them for getting jobs.

Angie wished she could share with Summer how terrible a mundane job was. The callers had no patience, her coworkers talked about things that didn't make sense to her, and the girl next to her, Maria, just didn't know when to stop talking. Angie now knew more about Summer's teammate Ziggy than she ever had wanted to know.

At least there was the small comfort that he'd had no choice in the matter, just like Summer hadn't, and she was sure that all she and Ben had to do was have some quiet words in the young man's ear about not even thinking of dating their daughter.

Maybe, she realized as she looked at her daughter, Summer and Chaz weren't meant to be. Summer would never be happy in that marriage, not any more. They'd have to break the engagement, pay the Winchesters the money they owed. Then she'd have to find a way to talk to Scott's father and arrange a marriage with him. Or if that didn't work, maybe the younger Truman would be willing to help them out by getting Summer pregnant.

Summer would thank her for it. She and Ben would get their daughter back. It wasn't like she hadn't noticed how distant Summer had gotten since they'd been forced to flee to Corinth, and Angie still wanted to marry well.

It just looked like their dear daughter was not going to do it quite the way either of them expected.

When they'd finished dinner, she sent Summer on ahead and caught Ben, swiftly outlining her plan. From his expression, he could see it had never occurred to him. But they were both getting tired of the Winchesters' demands, and at least the Trumans weren't a bad choice.

By the time that they got to the car, Angie was smiling.

They took Summer back to the base, parking outside. "We thought we'd go in with you, dear," Angie said, giving her daughter her most charming smile. "Talk to some of those young men you live with."

"Mom, I'm really not sleeping with any of them." Summer looked annoyed at this, as if Angie was daring to question her virginity. But that was actually something that Angie didn't mind at all, Summer getting out of it by sleeping with a teammate.

She wished there was some way to sabotage her daughter's birth control, but she knew that wasn't realistic.

"I know, dear. But we want to see them anyway.

"And I'm not interested in Ziggy. Or Dillon. So don't threaten them."

"We wouldn't think of it," Ben said, his smile matching hers. He offered his arm to Angie, and they followed their daughter inside.


	14. Inappropriate Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flynn is glad he doesn't have to deal with Summer's parents. Not that he's keen on AttackBots either.

Scott had an odd look on his face after Summer's parents had left, and Flynn had to wonder what they'd said to him. "So?" he asked casually, hoping Scott would tell him.

His team leader shook his head,as in disbelief over what he'd been told. Flynn had seen the Landsdowns corner him and it had clearly been something that he'd never, ever wanted to discuss with them.

"Scott, do I have to talk to my parents?" Summer asked, joining them. Her hands were balled. "I thought they liked you."

"That's the problem," Scott said, sounding like he was trying to process something.

"What Ranger Red is saying," Doctor K said, joining them, "is that your parents instructed him to engage in reproductive relations quite inappropriate between a team leader and subordinate in order to release you from the conditions of the arrangement between themselves and the Winchester family."

Summer parsed that a minute before he did, and he didn't blame her for blushing. At all.

"I think I'll, um, go work on my truck," he said. That whole situation was something he didn't want to get involved in.

Everybody ignored him, so he left. He could hear Summer reassuring Scott that she'd handle her parents and their strange ideas, and that she'd find some other way to break the engagement.

"Is it safe to come out now?" Ziggy asked, from whatever space he'd been hiding in. Flynn didn't blame him, because he didn't like dealing with Summer's parents either.

"Aye," Flynn said, giving Ziggy a far more wan smile than what Ziggy really needed. "Don't blame you for wanting to avoid them."

"Well, yeah. They're rich, and the kind of people who didn't watch their pockets," Ziggy said. "And the criminal record kind of turns people off, you know?"

Flynn had to nod at that. After Ziggy had bonded to his morpher, they'd put out the information that the morphers had chosen their users, mostly because they didn't need to keep it secret anymore. When Ziggy's record had come out, they'd been able to pull a "the morpher wouldn't have chosen him if he wasn't redeemable, isn't it great that he's putting his talents to legitamite use" spiel that seemed to have worked. Flynn wondered if his teammate had noticed that the press was starting to romanticize his past.

"Aye," he agreed. "Don't exactly seek them out myself. Then again, they don't like coming in there themselves, so you're pretty safe. Suspect they only were in to ask Scott something." He was certainly glad that he hadn't been the one cornered by Summer's parents.

"Well, that's good to know," Ziggy said, relaxing a little. "I know I'm not ideal in a lot of ways, but I like it when people don't rub it in my face."

Ziggy could feel guilty about breathing sometimes, Flynn swore. It was why they'd been slowly building up his self-esteem as well as his fighting skills. It was that lack which had made Dillon try to take off with him, from what Flynn could tell. "Don't worry about it, lad. Some people are just like that, you know? If you weren't a great person, would you have saved Arcie?"

His teammate blushed a little. "Well...."

"See? You're too hard on yourself." He slapped Ziggy on the arm. "Go and do those self-esteem exercises Doctor K's wanting you to do, okay?"

"Oh, yeah. The ones that if I don't do, she lectures me about," Ziggy said. "Um. Maybe I should."

Flynn knew that self-esteem was something that only had to be discovered by oneself, but Doctor K had the final say in some things, and he admitted he really didn't want Dillon deciding that he needed to take off again with their youngest, most insecure teammate.

"Thanks, Flynn," Ziggy said, heading in the direction of his room.

Waving a quick goodbye, Flynn went to work on his truck and then realized another person had appoached. Looking up, he realized it was Summer. "Parents getting to you, lass?"

"Just a little," Summer admitted. "I can't believe they did that to Scott." She sighed. "I'm tempted to do something I shouldn't."

"Probably not the world's best idea," Flynn said honestly. "Don't worry. You'lll find some way out of it without getting married or otherwise."

"I hope so," Summer said.

In the scheme of things, it could be really worse. By the time the week was over Venjix was launching what might not have been a full assault, but it certainly felt like it.

Catching his breath, Flynn hoped the battle wouldn't become a regular occurance. For one, Venjix had invaded the city with about fifty Grinders led by a woman in spandex. At the same time, there were two Attackbots; one that had dug under the city and disruped a gate and a portion of the shield, and the second, a satellite-type bot.

As it was, they were having a tough time. The Grinders had been to soften them up and to let the AttackBots do their work. When they were done with those, the team had split, himself, Scott and Summer to tackle the digging bot, and Dillon and Ziggy to handle the satellite bot.

By that point, the digging bot had done quite a bit of damage to Corinth's streets, and the satellite bot was doing its best to permanently screw up Corinth's shields. EIther way, Corinth was endangered, so tackling one after the other wasn't a good idea.

Scott, at least, seemed to have the digging bot under control, and the woman heading up the Grinders had disappeared somewhere during the combat. They'd have to chase after her later, with the two 'Bots being the highest priority. He hoped that Dillon and Ziggy were having luck with the other AttackBot; they hadn't had time to check. A quick joining of weapons after took quick care of their AttackBot.

Flynn only hoped that Dillon and Ziggy were having as much luck.


	15. A Satellite of Memories

Dillon gritted his teeth as the AttackBot was taunting him. It seemed to be taking great personal pleasure at giving him glimpses of his own memories, things he desperately wanted, and reminding him that it, not he, held them in its steel fingers and memory banks.  
   
It was the only reason that the bot hadn't been destroyed yet.  
   
He was sure that Ziggy was going to get there soon; while his teammate was improving, he still hadn't been in the greatest shape when he'd been forced onto the team and so Dillon was alone. If he'd had a choice, he'd be long out of the city, and Ziggy with him, but Doctor K had made it clear that it wasn't an option. Personally, Dillon was running as soon as he could figure a way out of there that wouldn't be thwarted by the scientist. With Ziggy's tracker out of him, he was sure that he could find a way out soon that Doctor K couldn't stop.  
   
Maybe he'd get lucky and he'd find some way to get his memories back before then. It would help him find the person he'd been looking for when he'd ended up being called to Corinth by his damned device. Seriously, he and Ziggy were the only sane people in the town, he swore.  
   
He dodged the bolt of lightning that the bot caused the weather system to throw. He'd have to have a word on why in the hell the people of this enclosed town thought they needed lightning, of all things. It seemed a stupid thing to simulate in an enclosed city that depended on its own fields to keep its citizens fed.  
   
But that wasn't really his big concern. His big concern was knocking it out of commission so that it could be dissected and he could get his memories back.  Stepping out of the way of another lightning bolt, Dillon wondered if there would be a way to channel it into the bot and give it a taste of its own medicine.  
   
Of course, it was probably shielded from things like that.  
   
"RPM, get in gear!" came Ziggy's yell as he burst onto the rooftop, drawing the bot's attention. A lightning bolt landed where Ziggy was a moment before. Ziggy rolled away, coming up axe in hand, ready to attack.  
   
"Be careful. He's got my memories," Dillon said. He and Ziggy were friends, and Ziggy understood how much his memories meant to him, or so he thought. He would be pissed if he'd guessed wrong.  
   
"Got it. No cleaving the AttackBot with your memories." Ziggy paused before summoning his axe. "Think they're in his legs?"  
   
It was a silly question on the surface, but Dillon could see what Ziggy was thinking. Ziggy was trying to think of a way to take the bot out without damaging Dillon's chances of getting his memories back.  
   
The AttackBot laughed as Ziggy came at it with his axe, dodging easily. Despite Ziggy's multiple practices, the axe was a bit too big and heavy for him, no matter how much the other man refused to admit it. But at least Ziggy recovered easily, regaining his balance and was soon ready to attack again.  
   
Dillon took that moment to attack with his own gun, balancing for the recoil as it clipped the bot in its dish-like head. The bot laughed again, but to Dillon's relief, didn't try calling lightning again.  
   
Instead, it aimed its arms at Ziggy, shooting him with some sort of beam. Ziggy didn't quite roll in time, and it struck him firmly, causing him to fall down.   
   
Gritting his teeth, Dillon decided that the damn bot was going to stay down, now, memories or no memories.  Ziggy had sat up, but he wasn't making any moves to join in the fight, just staring at the bot as if he'd never seen it before. Using Ziggy's ideas to disable the bot, he aimed his blaster at its legs, blasting one off. He didn't know how well it would balance, on one leg, but he hoped at least that it would disable it enough to bring it in.  
   
Soon, the AttackBot was flat on its front, and Dillon pulled a few cables out of one smoking hole that seemed to knock it out, or at least kept it from moving. He then turned to Ziggy. "You all right?" he asked.  
   
"Um, I guess." Ziggy was staring at his hands and arms, as if unsure as to how he'd gotten in uniform. "Yeah, I'm just figuring out how I'm a Ranger, never mind me."  
   
Dillon wondered for a moment whether Ziggy was asking why the damned morpher had chosen him, or if the AttackBot had zapped his memories as it had zapped Dillon's.  
   
"What do you mean?" Dillon asked neutrally, thinking of how elated, if confused, Ziggy had been when he'd been chosen in the first place. Confused because while he wanted to serve, he wasn't sure why he was chosen. Elated because some part of him wanted to be a hero. Relieved that at least one pain was going to end.  
   
But then again, anyone would have bonded to stop the headaches and the wordless nagging the chosen got when they refused to listen to the call. They'd both resisted, and Ziggy more successfully than Dillon.  
   
"Well, I don't remember becoming a Ranger," Ziggy said. "You know, I've been dreaming of it, but I'm not exactly Ranger material, you know?"  
   
Realization dawned. This was Ziggy, pre-bonding. The Ziggy who didn't have duties to Corinth, who had been doing childcare, who might have dreamed of the call, but had never thought to respond.  
   
"Yeah, well." Dillon demorphed, pressing a button on Ziggy's morpher to take him out of it too. Maybe this was a prime time to leave, before Ziggy remembered he had an obligation to Corinth. He would have liked to get his memories back, but he didn't want to give up the possibility of getting out of there.    
   
"I'm dreaming, aren't I? Pinch me." Ziggy was staring at the morpher, poking at it. "There's no way I'd ever be a Ranger."  
   
"Sort of." He helped the other up. "Let's go downstairs."  
   
It was then his morpher bleeped. "Ranger Black. Ranger Green. Please respond."  
   
Doctor K, of course. He lifted it up. "Dillon here."  
   
"Are you experiencing difficulties?"  
   
Other than her? He thought about saying that, but stopped himself. "We're fine."  
   
"Radio communications would indicate that something has happened to Ranger Green."  
   
Ziggy walked over to where he was standing, staring at Dillon's morpher instead. "Am I Ranger Green, and am I supposed to be answering that?"  
   
There was something like a sigh on Doctor K's end. "It appears that Ranger Green seems to be suffering a memory loss effect."  
   
"Yeah, maybe having to do with the bot we just got rid of." Dillon looked at it, thinking of how many memories it had to contain. "Even I can't move that thing alone, Doc."  
   
"I shall ask that Colonel Truman's forces remove the bot and return it to me for study," Doctor K said. "In the meantime, please bring Ranger Green to base so I can examine him."  
   
"That's me, right?" Ziggy asked.  
   
Another sigh-like sound. "Yes, you are the one that I'm referring to."  
   
"But I'm not a Ranger," Ziggy said. He was still looking at the morpher strapped to his wrist as if it was strange.  
   
"As I stated, you are suffering a memory loss effect, Ranger Black will assist you in your return to base."  
   
"That's the guy I'm with, I take it." Ziggy stopped looking at his morpher and looked questioningly at Dillon instead.  
   
"Yes." Doctor K's response was tight. "He will assist you here."  
   
"All right," Ziggy said.   
   
"We hear and obey," Dillon said sarcastically, causing Ziggy to look at him, confused.  
   
"Sarcasm is unnecessary," Doctor K said, and he knew she'd make him pay later, if he deigned to return. "Return to base."  
   
"Dillon out," he told the morpher, not wanting to talk to the woman any longer. He lowered his arm, Ziggy looking expectantly at him. "You heard her."  
   
"Um, yeah." Ziggy started moving towards the stairwell. "I'm still convinced I'm dreaming, though."  
   
Dillon had to chuckle at that, even knowing the grim truth about the morphers and their call. "Nope."  
   
Ziggy paused at the door. "Do I make a good Ranger?" he asked. "I mean, it's not exactly something I ever planned to do with my life."  
   
In terms of playing with others, Ziggy was great. But in terms of combat ability? Dillon had seen grinders that fought better than Ziggy did, sometimes. "You're great at following orders. I don't know about fighting ability."  
   
"Yeah, well I kind of figured it. Not my thing, you know?" Ziggy shrugged.   
   
Dillon thought about taking the innocent Ziggy out of the mess. It wasn't like the morphers would cause the same problem now that the two of them were bonded. They could be out of the city before Doctor K was any wiser.  
   
"So, I guess we should go," Ziggy said, and Dillon had to wonder if Ziggy's memory was the only thing the bot had affected. Ushering his teammate into the stairwell, Dillon started plotting ways out of the city.   
   
After all, as much as he'd love to have his memories back, he'd much rather be out of the city before anything else happened to the two of them.  
 


	16. Memories in Machine Format

"So, um, your name is Dillon?" Ziggy asked, looking at the man beside him as they walked down the stairs of the building. It still felt like a dream. Who wouldn't want to be a Ranger, after all, and even as he knew it wasn't meant to be, it felt like he was living one.

Of course, who would want a minor-mob-flunky-turned-volunteer-at-an-orphanage to be a Ranger? It didn't make any sense, which was why this whole thing had to be a dream. Especially since only his subconscious - and maybe some of the kids - knew that he dreamed of being the Green Ranger.

"Yeah." His companion was a man of few words. Ziggy had never thought much about teammates, though he knew as much as most people in Corinth about their Ranger team. Scott Truman, Flynn McAllistair, and Summer Landsdown. Apparently missing from his memory was the guy beside him, Ranger Black, Dillon. He was sure that this was a dream, after all, because last he'd checked, the Rangers had three members, not four.

But if it was a dream, he was hardly complaining. If he was a Ranger, even in a dream, he could be a hero instead of Fresno Bob's least competent worker.

"And we're going back to Ranger HQ?" he asked. He wondered what the place would be like - probably full of high-tech gadgets and things like that. Ziggy found himself becoming excited by the prospect of meeting the Rangers and getting a look at their gear. It would be nice if it was real, but hey, beggars couldn't be choosers.

There was hesitation on his 'teammate's' part. "Only if you want to."

"Why wouldn't I want to?" Ziggy asked. Even if being a Ranger was crazy, he still felt like he should go back. After all, if he was a superhero, wasn't that where he belonged?

There was something that sounded suspiciously like a sigh from Dillon, and he looked over at Ziggy, stopping at a landing. "You don't know the first thing about how you ended up as one."

"I'm willing to learn." Never let it be said that Ziggy ever took badly to learning new things. "Hey, I might be missing some of my memories, but I'm the same lovable guy."

Dillon snorted, leaning against the wall. "You were chosen because that thing," he said, pointing at the device on Ziggy's wrist, "Decided you'd be a perfect Ranger. And then it started hounding you by giving you headaches and flashes of green. Except unlike the rest of us, you didn't end up crawling to the Garage."

He wanted to ask what garages had to do with anything, and why it sounded like the word in question was capitalized. Instead, he asked, "So, what did I do?"

"Had a tree land on you."

"I got chosen because a tree landed on me?" This had to be a dream. No way could he be chosen for having a tree fall on him.

"No, that's when the others found you. They'd been looking for you for weeks."

Ziggy had a hard time believing that the Rangers had been looking for him for weeks. He pinched himself, yelped, and looked up at Dillon. "So, this isn't a dream. I'm really a Ranger?" He found it hard to believe, but apparently he was. Him, Ziggy Grover!

Dillon nodded. "Tracking device and all."

He had to blink at that for a moment. "Tracking device?"

"Doctor K - our boss - doesn't like it when her Rangers wander off." Ziggy had a feeling that Dillon was leaving something out. "She tried sticking a tracking device in you - I forced her to take it out."

Well, it figured they wouldn't trust the ex-con. Ziggy had to admit he was a bit unhappy about it, but hey, getting used to having an ex-con being a Ranger probably took a little time. It was kinda nice that Dillon had them take it out, though. Maybe they were normally good friends.

Whatever had been done to him by that Bot had really screwed up his memory. "So, I guess we go back so that I can remember things, or whatever."

"We could do that," Dillon acknowledged. Ziggy didn't need much to sense that his teammate was less than eager about it. Dillon was his teammate, wasn't he? At least Ziggy hoped so. Dillon was one of those guys that could squash Ziggy to death without even trying, the kind of person he did not piss off.

"Or, we could do whatever you want to do." He didn't have a problem with that, either.

"I want to leave Corinth." Dillon wasn't looking at Ziggy, and Ziggy was glad he wasn't the person Dillon was pissed off at.

"Leave Corinth. Are you-" He decided he didn't want to add the last word to the big tough guy.

"The first time we tried to leave we didn't know about the tracking device." There was a bitter tone to Dillon's voice.

He'd tried to leave Corinth with Dillon, for some reason, and they'd been stopped by someone because there was a tracking device in him. Of course, he might not have really been willing to go - it might have been Dillon who'd made the choice, and he'd gone along with it because Dillon seemed to be big and tough. He himself had no reason to leave Corinth, would be crazy to, because there was Venjix out there, and pretty harsh living conditions. Not the kind of thing he'd want to get stuck in, to be honest.

Maybe there was a good thing about the Rangers and this Doctor K not trusting him yet. It might have saved his life.

"I don't think I want to leave Corinth," he said, hoping that Dillon wouldn't beat him up over it. "But I'm willing to do it if it means something to you. On the other hand, I'd kind of like to get my memories back."

If they could get his memories back, that would be great.

"What if she can't get them back?" Dillon asked. "I don't even know if she can get mine back, and I know at least I've got the mechanics to do it."

Ziggy quickly figured out two things: one, Dillon had more than a touch of amnesia himself, and that he was a Venjix hybrid. Albeit one they trusted, apparently. Did that make him a good guy? "I'll take the chance. Dunno if I've learned to fight better since I joined up, but at least it's got to be more than I have right now." He couldn't imagine the Rangers not training him to fight, and if he got into trouble, he'd rather not be stuck being helpless. Maybe he'd get lucky and it would have gotten to muscle memory, but he kind of doubted it.

Still, as he looked over at Dillon, he wondered if the Wastes would be so dangerous if he had a friend.

Dillon's morpher beeped as he was considering that. "Ranger Black," the voice said without preamble once Dillon answered it, "Why aren't you and Ranger Green heading back to base?"

"I thought you said there was no tracking device," Ziggy said to Dillon. How else would she know that they weren't going anywhere at the moment?

"Had to have a little discussion." Dillon didn't sound too happy about the whole development, ignoring him to speak to Doctor K. "We'll be back shortly."

"The amnesia induced by Venjix's latest AttackBot has no doubt caused Ranger Green's fighting skills to disappear. I suggest returning to base until he is no longer vulnerable."

Ziggy took a second to parse that. Whoever Doctor K was, she certainly was into big words and speaking formally. But he hoped he got along with her, because she was his boss, right? A little different than what he was used to, but what did it matter?

"Right. Dillon out." With that, Ziggy's companion tapped a button and looked over at Ziggy. "Think about it."

Finding himself nodding, Ziggy hoped that Dillon did find what he was looking for, because unhappy big guys with muscles tended to do some damage if one wasn't careful.

"Let's head back."

Ziggy had to admit that it was a good idea, because he really would like to get his memories back if he could, and then he'd think about going into the Wastes. He was really good at following orders when it came down to things.

Dillon took him down to a black car, and they headed back to a real, actual garage. Ziggy was a little surprised; he assumed the "garage" part was metaphorical. Still, he stepped out of the car, still expecting a little to be dreaming.

Who wouldn't, to be honest? He thought he'd suck at being a Power Ranger, but hey, if they wanted him, they wanted him!

Scott Truman walked up to him, and he was glad to see worry. Not that a Ranger should be anything but worried when people got hurt, but it relieved him somehow. "You okay? Doctor K said-"

"Well, I seem to have this little gap in my memory. Don't even know how long I've been a Ranger." He smiled up, because while it was nice to have someone worry over him, there wasn't much anybody could do about his amnesia until their boss could pull his memories out of the AttackBot and stuff them back in him.

And since he doubted that they'd send him out to battle until he could actually fight - or at least he hoped that nobody would send him out untrained - he'd just do what he could until they could get him back to normal. If that was housekeeping or whatever injured Rangers did, he'd do it.

Summer Landsdown and Flynn McAllistair were joining the two of them - three, if you counted Dillon - and both of them were looking at him with some worry too. It was definitely nice. "Let's get some lunch into you," Flynn said. "Doctor K's still waiting for the military to get that AttackBot off the roof."

So he was lead into a section of the garage that was clearly where they had all their meals, though they were intercepted by a bob-haired young woman - teenager, really, younger than Ziggy - in a scientist's coat. "I need to test and debrief him," she said, and the words made something in his mind click.

"You must be Doctor K," he said. This was his boss? Of course, some people just naturally looked young, so she was probably older than he thought she was.

"Yes," she said. "Come with me."

He didn't protest, though he hated being poked and prodded. There was something in the woman's tone that said you didn't disobey her.

She led him into a lab room - one that held the Rangers' suits, though that might have been for diagnostic reasons, he thought - and told him to stand still as she ran a scanner over him. "What is the last thing you remember, prior to being on the building roof?" she asked.

"Um. One of the kids was running a fever, and so I was making sure that he was all right. Child Gamma Sickness, you know."

Doctor K frowned. "And what date and time was that?"

"Time? I think around three in the afternoon. Date? It was-" He paused for a moment and rattled off the date.

She merely nodded. "You may return to where the other Rangers are gathered. I'm sure that the AttackBot will be retrieved soon."

He kind of hoped that they would; it was kind of annoying to not remember anything, after all. He wondered how well he normally got along with her. It was a shame that she didn't seem to smile, that she was so serious.

Maybe while he was stuck off of duty, he'd figure out something that she'd like and would make her smile. He'd seen guys crack when they hadn't had a chance to have fun and relax, and it was probably going to be the same way with her if she wasn't careful.

But he didn't say anything to her, because she had an AttackBot to wait for. So, he headed out, figuring at least he could get lunch. Or whatever meal they were at.

He swore while he was leaving that she said, "This isn't good." He shuddered, hoping that those words didn't apply to him. Because he so didn't want to be stuck like this, forever.


	17. The Choice of Protectors

Flynn watched as Ziggy returned from Doctor K's lab. He had to admit, it was worrysome, what had happened to Ziggy. As they all knew, the man wasn't a fighter and had never pretended to be one. Flynn was sure that Doctor K would keep Ziggy off duty as long as she could; whatever faults the woman had, she did care about the team.

But he didn't say anything to Ziggy. He just smiled and made sure he ate and stayed busy. He knew Doctor K would do anything she could to get Ziggy's memory back from where the Bot had zapped it. 

Scott pulled him to one side as Ziggy was eating. "Keep an eye on him," Scott said, lifting a shoulder in Ziggy's direction.

"You're thinking what I'm thinking, then." Flynn nodded. "Lad does get wandered off a bit, after all."

"I don't know whether to watch him every minute or hope that Doctor K fixes this up, fast." Scott was almost at the point of pinching his nose in frustration.

"I'm sure she will, Scott. But we'll all keep an eye on Ziggy, just in case."

Well, at least their amnesiac teammate seemed to be in a good mental place, just very confused about things. Which one couldn't blame him for, because how many people suddenly found themselves Rangers?

Of course, he'd walked in one day by accident when the door had been open. Doctor K'd been surprised, to say the least; he had too. It had been her thought that maybe the morpher had worked things to make sure he came and wasn't stopped. 

And from his experiences, she'd been able to figure out what had happened and set up the program to start testing people who happened to spend a lot of time around the building. That's how they'd found Summer and Scott, and had a hint of Ziggy's potential.

He returned to where Ziggy was. While the other Ranger was definitely confused - and looking at his morpher like he wasn't sure how it got there - Flynn was sure he'd accept it just like he'd accepted it the first time. Once he'd stopped running, he'd taken things fairly well.

Summer, joining them, said, "It's good to have you with us, Ziggy." He had to admit, she'd done a good job in spotting Ziggy. Hadn't been counting on him running, of course.

"Thanks." He gave her a wan smile. "Um. Pretty much not expecting this. The whole Ranger thing, I mean. Did I really get found under a tree?"

"You were protecting a kid," Flynn said. He leaned forward. Couldn't hurt to tell him how he ended up on the team. "Actually, we knew about you before, but you ran when Summer called you."

"I did?" He closed his eyes. "I don't remember that. Not that I remember much right now. About being a Ranger, that is."

Flynn wondered briefly if Ziggy's memory loss went back to before Summer had realized things. If so, it was something they'd have to deal with.

"Don't worry about it," Flynn told him. "Doctor K will get things back to normal before you miss a battle." He hoped, at least.

Ziggy grinned and finished dinner, barely before Doctor K spoke over the intercom. "Ranger Operator Series Green, please report back to the lab."

"That's you," Summer reminded Ziggy.

"Don't let her inject anything," Dillon added, coming from out of nowhere.

"Does this have anything to do with the tracking device thing-" Ziggy managed before Dillon glared. "Okay, I'm not gonna ask."

"People are just good at wandering off with you," Flynn told him. "Don't worry about it, just let Doctor K do what she needs to do."

Flynn had always enjoyed protecting people and making them smile by righting wrongs. Sure, he hadn't succeeded as brilliantly before the end of the world had happened, not with any of his prior jobs, but everything had been worth it when he saw the grateful look on peoples' faces.

His morpher had, he thought, chosen well. Of course, all of theirs had, Dillon's and Ziggy's as much as himself, Summer, and Scott. Five people who wanted to protect, even if saving what was left of humanity wasn't exactly what they'd had in mind. 

Maybe he should tell Ziggy about why he'd been chosen, even if the other Ranger didn't realize it. He remembered a conversation between Ziggy and Doctor K about how the call had affected him more after he left the cartels, when he was starting to do good.

All they had to do is get Dillon to realize that staying was a good thing - something that he was settling into, but wasn't quite there yet. He seemed ready to run off, bond or no bond, and Flynn wished he knew why.

But that would be after Ziggy was with Doctor K, after he wasn't privy to discussions that would leave him further confused. Flynn shooed him in before straightening up. After all, wouldn't do to keep Ziggy safe from Grinders if his own teammate took off with him.

Flynn could only hope that Dillon was smarter than that.


	18. Getting the Backstory

Ziggy walked into the room and found Doctor K typing away at her computer. "I will be running you through the same set of tests I conducted when you first became a Ranger."

"Okay." He wasn't sure he liked that, but hey, she only wanted him to get better. He could live with that just fine. "Just let me know what you want me to do."

That turned out to be a lot, though Ziggy found reflexes that he didn't know he had working to keep him out of the way of things. He seemed to be a bit stronger and more limber, and in better shape. He guessed that as a Ranger, he had to be in better shape than the rest of the city of Corinth.

Obviously, they’d taken the raw him and made him better. And he could totally get behind that. It kind of sucked losing his memory, but maybe it was a good thing. He could forget the bad times and remember the good, that was something that he could live with.

It was something that he wished he could share with the kids. He wondered if he was ever back to visit. He probably was. It seemed like a good thing to do, cheer the kids up.

He’d probably been up to a lot as a Ranger. Probably gotten a few dates, as well. If Rangers were allowed to go on dates or do anything that didn’t involve training, saving the world, or bonding with his teammates. 

Then again, he could get dates after this whole thing was done, if nothing else. Someday he’d marry a chick and have kids, he was sure of that. He didn’t have to be the world’s best person to be an awesome father.

He probably couldn’t fraternize with Summer, his sole female teammate. He was probably her project instead of a romantic interest. He assumed. He wasn’t sure on who to ask on that, either.

Maybe it would be better if he got at least part of his memory back. He was used to blundering, but he didn't want to blunder here, even if people were probably used to him doing just that.

"At least your muscle memory has been retained," Doctor K said. She seemed very formal, and he had to wonder if he'd ever found out why.

He tried to reassure himself that they'd tell him if he did something wrong, like all of his bosses had done. Doctor K seemed especially good at that, he felt. Maybe it was some subconscious memory that she was that abrupt.

"Um, that's great," he said. "It would be nice if I remembered everything, but I'll start with that." Like she probably had any way to restore his memory. He'd never heard of anything that could do just that.

"For the moment, I will continue your training while I attempt to recover your memory from the AttackBot." She indicated the bot that he'd seen when he'd had the gap in his memories.

"Uh, right." She didn't seem like she'd be doing training, but maybe she did.

"You are dismissed for the moment."

"Yeah." He got out of there, and it only occurred to him that he hadn't asked when that training was. He stuck his head in. "When is training?"

"Tomorrow at nine o'clock. I will remind you then."

"Right." She seemed irritated, and busy, so he left her alone. Instead, he headed back to the Rangers' equivalent of a living room, which seemed to be very small, but he couldn't complain. He, Ziggy Grover, was saving the world! Or what was left of it, anyway.

"So, did she inject anything?" Dillon asked, suddenly looming in front of him.

"Nope. Just wanted to see what I remembered in terms of training. I don't remember much, but my muscles do!"

"She promised she wouldn't, Dillon." Summer's tone was firm. "Not until we chose to."

"Still don't like it. Especially with him." Dillon jerked a thumb in Ziggy's direction, and Ziggy was glad he wasn't pissed off at him. "He's had enough happen to him, does he really need to have a tracker in him?"

"Given his tendency to be wandered off, yes," Flynn said.

It seemed to be a continuing disagreement. He had to wonder what had happened.

Dillon glared at Flynn for a few moments, and then went back to work on his car.

"What happened?" he asked Summer. She seemed like she'd know everything.

"Dillon tried to take off with you early in your training," Summer explained. "He didn't want to be a Ranger and he decided that you didn't want to be one, either."

"Did I?" He had to wonder. All he knew is that they'd found him. He didn't know if they'd conscripted him.

"You weren't very sure about it at first," Summer said, "But once we made it clear that we wanted you, you stayed."

He must have felt wanted, if he'd stayed. These people, for some reason, wanted clumsy, incompetent Ziggy Grover. He wasn't sure he'd ever understand, but he was willing to live with it. 

"How did you find me? I mean, I know you found me under a tree, but you'd been looking for me before." It would help solve the puzzle of how he was suddenly a Ranger, at least a little.

"The morphers choose their users, Ziggy." Summer smiled. "We'd been looking for Green and Black for a while, but Dillon had been outside Corinth, and apparently yours was waiting for you to stop being in the Cartels."

"The green." He'd been dreaming of green every night, green calling to him, the strangest dreams he'd ever had. "In my head. But I've had that for a while, almost as long as I've been in Corinth."

"That was your morpher, calling you to leave the Cartels." Summer said. "We started tracking people who came here frequently, and you did."

No wonder the building had looked familiar. He was used to walking by it because he felt he should. Maybe the morpher had been calling him.

"I almost broke in here a few times." He hoped he'd told her about his past.

"You told us." She put a hand on his shoulder. "Doctor K had recordings, it's just that she never thought a minor cartel member would be a Ranger, or you would have been tested before we found you."

"You're the one who spotted me." Except he'd run. He'd probably thought she wanted to hurt him.

"Yes, and you accidentally confirmed it when we found you, so we know we had the right person. You've been a good Ranger, too, Ziggy. You have it in you to protect people. You've proven that over and over and over again. 

He wished he remembered that. But then again, hadn't he siphoned off part of a medical shipment to the orphanage?

"Thanks. Now all I need is my memory back so I know all the nifty moves I apparently know."

"Your body'll remember. Don't worry about it, Ziggy. Doctor K's very good."

"She seems... um, very authoritarian. Can we date or anything like that?" he asked. He'd always wondered what the Rangers' lives would be like.

"Doctor K sometimes seems like that, but she doesn't rule our lives. As long as we have permission to leave base, that's all that matters."

"Oh, okay. So, have I been dating?" he asked.

"Not really. None of us have. My parents would like me to get married, but I'm not going to think about it right now, and nobody else here is in a relationship."

He supposed that she would know if anybody would. She seemed the type to know what everybody was doing. Well, probably not as much as Doctor K, of course, but she was probably the most knowledgeable person in headquarters. "Oh."

"Let me show you where your room is, just in case this takes a while." Summer turned, not allowing him to protest. He followed her to the stairs, and then up them to a series of doors, and she opened one of them.

The room was very spare, though not as spare as some he'd been in. There was a wardrobe, a desk, a hamper, and a bed. A computer was on the desk, and he had a few books stacked up there as well. The bed had a green cover, something probably to do with his power, and he swore he saw a green blanket under the covers. Nobody said that he was perfect at making beds, after all, even though he was pretty decent. He probably did his own laundry, too.

He wondered if his music player had made it there. "Thanks, Summer," he said after a moment, and went into his room. "I'll see if any of this rings any bells."

Summer gave him a smile. "Just yell if you need anything."

"I will."

With that, she was gone. A quick search of the desk drawers revealed his old MP3 player and his favorite headphones. He checked his wardrobe to find far more green than he'd ever owned, mostly dark green. Some of his other clothes were there, too, to one side.

Flopping down on the bed, he decided to relax and listen to his songs. Maybe they'd get his memories back.

He could only hope.


	19. Alien Worlds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer has to wait.

Summer sighed as she left Ziggy in his bedroom. It was a little frustrating on her end for Ziggy to have forgotten everything, and she suspected that Ziggy was frustrated too. It couldn't be easy for him, since he'd forgotten all of his time as a Ranger. As much as she liked Dillon - more than Dillon thought, she was sure - she knew that Dillon still half-wanted to leave Corinth with Ziggy, and no matter how she somewhat sympathized with him, humankind came first.

She thought of Maru, Abigail and Erin, the friends she'd made before becoming a Ranger. They'd all come from some tiny farming community down south near the ocean, and Abigail, at least, wasn't used to huge cities. But they'd all ended up helping in the first aid efforts. Maru had been a nurse, and Erin and Abigail at least knew first aid. They'd been up for a game convention before the world had come to an end. Summer had shared a room with Maru for a short while, and found the young woman to be a good roommate. She still thought about them, how it was to leave the three of them when she became a Ranger. They'd thrown her a small party.

She sometimes runs into her former roommates, and she knows they appreciate what she does. It's not easy, she knows, but she'll continue protecting them even if she can't see them that often. At the very least, she knows that they are there and she needs to protect.

That being said, she understands Ziggy and Dillon's reluctance to be doing this. Not that it's a good idea, but she can understand it. She just won't let Dillon take Ziggy away.

The fact that Ziggy is so prone to be taken away from them is a grim reminder that sometimes, Rangers need protecting too.

She will keep him safe against his own teammates, or teammate, even if it means being hostile somewhat against Dillon.

Dillon, who wants to protect Ziggy too, in a much different way.

She reaches the bottom of the stairs, heading towards Dr K's lab. There is no training right now because Dr. K needs to figure out how to restore Ziggy's memories. Maybe Dillon's too. Maybe they'll both be whole again by the time Dr. K is through.

"What?" Dr. K asks as she enters. Summer wouldn't normally interrupt the scientist, but she has managed to anyway.

"Ziggy's in bed... at the moment."

Dr. K looks at her sternly. "I have taken steps to make sure that Ranger Operator Series Green will not be abducted."

"You stuck the tracking device back in him," Summer said, aware that this wouldn't make Dillon happy.

"I removed the possiblity of Ranger Black departing at the moment," the scientist responded. "I do not believe Ranger Green will be easily spirited away if Ranger Black does not have a working car."

Summer opened her mouth,, and then closed it again. "What if we have to go into battle?"

"Ranger Black will have to ride with Ranger Blue or Ranger Red until the issue is fixed. I cannot risk losing two Rangers."

"Do you think that he'll stay if maybe his missing memories are in that Attackbot?" Summer asked. She knew that Dillon would be unhappy... she'd be unhappy herself if she'd found herself suddenly out of a motorcyle due to sabotage.

"Perhaps. However, I cannot take that risk." Dr. K looked over at her. "I will repair Ranger Black's car when Ranger Green's memories are return or he is no longer vulnerable to kidnapping."

Summer could only hope that Dillon didn't go off on Dr. K when he discovered his car was no longer working.

"I'll train with Ziggy when he wakes up," she said. "He might have to relearn all of his fighting ability."

"He still retains the muscle memory. Teaching him how to fight again might be simple." Dr. K shook her head. "His confidence needs to be built up again."

"Right." That had been a problem before, and it seemed like it could be again. 

"Being able to fight, even if he is not conscious of the ability, will certainly improve his self-esteem." Dr. K turned back to the Attackbot. "I will schedule him for training with you, and also Ranger Black."

Keep them both in sight, Summer knew.

"He will be sleeping for quite a while, however. He was extremely tired when he went to bed."

"Right." It made sense. Ziggy wasn't used to all this. "Do you think that he'll regain his memories?"

"I will have a better chance of determining that if I can study the Attackbot." 

That was a certain "get out of here and stop bothering me" phrase. "Thank you, Doctor."

She headed back out. There was a new printing press in Corinth, and she wanted to read their latest book, a promising science fiction novel.

"Doctor K still working on the bot, eh?" Flynn asked.

"Yeah. There's not much we can do right now." She gave him a smile as he worked on some food. "She shooed me out."

"Complex bot, after all, if it can take memories." Flynn shook his head. "Best we can do is hope that she can get things back to normal."

"I'm going to train with Ziggy when he wakes up."

"And gets something in him, I bet." There was a sympathetic smile on Flynn's face. "Lad ate healthily before, but still, I don't want him to forget how to eat."

"I don't think he will." He wouldn't do that, she was sure. That was not how things worked. 

"Newest science fiction, huh?" Flynn asked casually. "Any good?"

"Yeah. She's supposed to be the new Octavia Butler, and I can believe it." Summer had to smile.

"Didn't know you liked Octavia Butler," Flynn said.

"One of my roommates let me read everything that she had." Maru had at least kept her books. It wasn't Octavia Butler's entire canon, but at least she'd had the Xenogenesis books and Fledgling. "I really like her."

"The writer, or the roommate?" Flynn asked.

"The writer, but Maru was a nice person too." She leaned back. "Maru didn't think there would be anybody who was as good as her. Maybe she's wrong. I haven't gotten very far yet." Between everything, her reading habits tended to be a little bit erratic. It seemed as soon as she got into a book, Venjix struck.

Maru had recommended the woman to her, as soon as she'd gotten a hold of her own copy. Books were expensive nowadays, but then again, everything tended to be. Books were no exception, because there weren't as many readers around anymore for even the most popular books.

"I'll have to read that when you're done. Just as long as it's not dystopian."

"Not that I can tell." That wasn't the setting. This might have been science fiction with aliens in it, but it didn't involve the human race killing itself off. At least not so far. Or becoming a dictatorship, though humans were trying.

It seemed like humans always tried.

Summer wasn't into dystopias. She knew so many things that could have gone wrong when Corinth came about, but at least it was still a democracy of sorts, with civilian and military working together to make things not so terrible. It was the millitary that had helped put together the dome image that made it seem like all of them were under open sky instead of in a dome.

Some people would have called the military evil. Summer didn't think so.

"It's about our first meeting with an alien race," Summer said. "And how we're handling it." The aliens were definitely bizarre, but they were interesting, and at least the protagonist, if repulsed, was slowly getting used to them. Not everybody was, of course. She could see that there was conflict, always needed for a good book. Few people read fiction that had no conflict at all, unless it was a simple children's story. Or maybe a cozy mystery, though she was sure even those had something in it.

"Sounds good. Lemme know when I can borrow it." Flynn grinned and went back to his cooking.

Summer went back to her book, though she occasionally glanced at Dr. K's workshop. She knew that it would take time for the scientist to figure things out, and she also knew that it wouldn't be good for either Dillon or Ziggy if things were rushed. Ziggy needed his memories back, and Dr. K needed time to do it.

She shook her head. Dr. K was brilliant, but she just hoped that she would be able to do it.

Maybe all they had to do was wait.


End file.
